Child of Light and Madness
by Baleygr
Summary: Sheogorath is bored, so he decides to take a trip through the multiverse. During the trip, he comes across Voldemort on his way to kill the Potter family. Becoming enraged by the cruelty Voldemort displays, Sheogorath saves Harry, and decides to raise him himself, asking Meridia for help. How will Harry turn out, being raised by two Gods?
1. Chapter 1

**How it began**

 **S** itting on his throne in the palace of New Sheoth, Sheogorath was bored. It had been centuries since he'd been out adventuring as the Hero of Kvatch, and while it had been fun to meet the Dragonborn during his vacation in the mind of Pelagius the Mad, it had been years since the Wabbajack had last been used. Deciding he needed some change he let his spirit leave his body, and journeyed out into the multitude of realities that could, would, had or were existing outside of Nirn. While the other Daedric Princes and the Aedra were bound to the planes which housed their followers and worshipers, he weren't bound by those limitations, since he didn't really have worshipers and followers, due to the nature of madness itself.

Instead, where-ever madness existed, he could too. So when he felt the dark madness from an individual on a certain world, he decided to take a look. The closer he got, the more he could hear the thoughts of the person the madness came from, and he didn't like what he heard. Apparently, this person was on his way to kill a family for no other reason than the fact a prophecy MIGHT indicate the young couples newborn child to be the one to defeat him, and end his plans for world domination.

Despite having lost most of his human side during the centuries since he'd become the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath felt himself turn pale in rage at the cruelty this... this _creature_ contained!

Following the creature, it didn't take long before they came to a house. Looking upon the house, Sheogorath could see the magic that swirled around it in a protective fashion, feeling the power behind it. For a brief moment, he felt relieved, believing that the magic protection of the house would stop the creature, but it just continued walking forward, ripping the protection to bits. The creature stopped in from of the door, and lifts a hand, holding a stick. For a brief second, Sheogorath wondered what the stick was for, but then he felt magic gather around the creature, focusing on the tip of the stick. Then a light flashed and the door was gone. As the creature stepped inside, a dark-haired man came into view. The fear was clear in his eyes as he looked upon the creature before he turns away and shout "Lily! Take Harry and run!". The creature just laughed as it lifts the stick again, pointing it at the man. It shouts _"AVADA KEDAVRA!"_ and a green light flashes from the stick, and the man falls to the floor, dead. Stepping over the body of the man, the creature climbs the stairs to the second floor, the stick held high. Once it had reached the top of the stairs, it walks into a room in which a young woman stands before a small bed, in which her child lay. The woman beggs it to spare her child, but the creature just laughs at her.

That was the last straw for Sheogorath. As the creature raised the stick it held, he reached out to the woman and spoke in her mind.

"My dear, I have heard your pleas, and while I can't save you, if given your permission, I can save your child."

The woman tensed up before she answered.

"Who are you? Why would you save my child?"

"I am Sheogorath, the Mad God, and while this creature before you is mad, it is no longer one of mine."

"But why? Why would you need my permission to save my child?"

"I may be the God of Madness, and madness takes many forms, but cruelty is NOT something I can stand. And for me to interact with your world, I would need to be summoned to it. You could do that, but I would not be able to reach you before this creature kills you."

"But you can save my child?"

"Yes, my dear."

The woman relaxes a bit, as the creature aims his stick at her.

"How do I summon you?"

"Just call my name, call Sheogorath."

As the tip of the stick flashes green, the woman calls his name. As she falls to the floor, he materializes next to her. The creature takes a step back at his sudden appearance, a aims the stick at him. Kneeling down, he gently closes the eyes of the woman and whispers "Brave child, your sacrifice and love for your child will be remembered.", before standing up and turning towards the creature.

Being able to see its face for the first time, he studies it. While almost human in appearance, it has no nose, and its eyes are red, almost like the eyes of a Dunmer, but with the pupil of a snake and radiating evil and cruelty. As it looks upon him, it starts to speak.

"Who are you, to stand in the way of Lord Voldemort? A friend of the Potters? I'm feeling generous right now, so if you don't want to die, leave!"

Feeling the anger rise inside him again, Sheogorath points his staff at the creature calling itself Voldemort.

"Be silent creature! This child is under my protection, and you will _NEVER_ lay your hands on him!"

Sneering in anger, the creature points its stick at him and shouts _"AVADA KEDAVRA!"_ again, letting a beam of green light shoot from the tip of the stick. Sheogorath simply lifts his hand and catches the beam, before he with a slight flick of the wrist, throws it back at the creature. Shock and fear can be seen in the eyes of the creature just before it is hit. The beam hits it in the middle of the chest, causing a rain of green sparks to fly through the room. From behind him, he can hear the cries of the baby, and he turns around. The child is crying, and the reason appears to be that one of the sparks must've hit him, for he has a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. Picking up the child, he turns again towards the corpse of the creature. Knowing that this world has magic-users, he decides to burn the corpse, so that it can't be resurrected by a Necromancer. As he set the corpse on fire with a spell, he hears a sound from outside of the house. Since he doesn't know who or what made that sound, he opens up a portal and steps through with the child, just as he hears someone or something enter the house, closing the portal behind him and returns to the Shivering Isles.

* * *

 **A** s he lands his flying motorcycle, Sirius stares in horror at the house his best friend and his wife and child lives in. The house is dark, and the door has been destroyed. The only light he can see coming from the house is the light of something burning on the second floor. He leaps from the bike, and runs into the house.

The first thing he sees as he enters the house is the body of his best friend, James Potter. He lies in the middle of the hallway, facing the door. Sirius kneels besides him for a moment, face contorted with grief. Closing James eyes, he rises again and hurries up the stairs to the nursery. As he reaches the landing, he can see a body on the floor of the nursery, burning. Stepping inside, he looks down on the burning body. While the fire has done some damage, he can still see the face, and with a sharp intake of air, he recognizes Voldemort. Turning away from the self-proclaimed Dark Lord, he sees Lily, lying by the cot. Rushing to her side, he first thinks she is asleep, her eyes closed and her face peaceful. But as he touches her, he can feel that she is dead, her skin is cold and she isn't breathing. As tears roll down his face, he stands up and looks into the cot. It is empty. In panic, he draws his wand and starts to cast a tracking spell, trying to find any trace of Harry. The spell does nothing, indicating that Harry hadn't been taken from the room, neither by magical nor normal means. It was as if he had vanished in thin air. In shock, Sirius leaves the house and walks to his bike. There, he breaks down in tears, sobbing in grief. Due to this, he doesn't notice the giant man arriving, until he feels his hand on his shoulder.

"Sirius, what happened 'ere?"

Looking up at the giant man, Sirius answer.

"They're dead, Hagrid. James and Lily are dead, and Harry has disappeared. Voldemort is also dead, but he killed them first! And it is my fault..."

As he breaks down in tears again, Hagrid looks on him in shock.

"Dead? No, no, that can't be... How? How could he 'ave found them?"

"A traitor, Hagrid. Only the Secret Keeper could tell Voldemort where they lived."

"But... I thought _YOU_ were the Secret Keeper..."

"It was a ruse. I was to be the bait, while the real Keeper was hiding."

"But, if not you, _who_?"

Sirius looked up with a dark fire burning in his eyes, and an angry look on his face.

"Pettigrew." He said, almost spitting out the name.

* * *

 **B** ack in his palace, Sheogorath stood next to the cot he had summoned, looking down on the sleeping child. Pondering on what to do, he went over his option. Either he could give the child to his Champion (But they hadn't talked in more than 70 years, so that wouldn't really work), give the child to one of his followers to raise (And that was a really bad idea, for, lets face it, a mad person isn't really fit to raise a child), or, he could raise the child on his own. Sighing, Sheogorath turned away from the child, for even though he once had hoped to start a family, that dream had died when he became the God of Madness. No mortal could be with him without turning mad, and that would not do when it came to raise a family. Sighing again, he sent one of his Golden Saints to the one he thought could help him and the child.

Returning to the throne-room, he sat down and waited. Not long after, he sensed her arriving and looked up. The doors to the throne-room was thrown open, and a beautiful woman walked in. Stopping in front of him, she looked at him and spoke.

"Why have you called me here, Sheogorath? You may be one of the strongest Daedric Princes, but that doesn't give you the right to call upon the rest of us at your leisure!"

Letting out a third sigh, he stood up and addressed her.

"Meridia, my dear, it wasn't to offend you I called you here, but for the fact that I'm in need of your help."

Scowling, the Daedric Prince of Life and Lady of Infinite Energies, seemed somewhat confused.

"Help? I thought _YOU_ of all daedra never would be in need of help! What in Oblivion could you possibly need my help with!"

Turning towards the room in which the child slept, he told her. "If you would come with me, and I'll shall explain."

When he walked away, she stood there for a moment before following him. Nodding to himself he began explaining.

"Earlier, I was feeling bored, so I decided to look through the worlds outside of Nirn, to see if I could find something interesting. While out looking, I came across a world, from which I sensed a strange madness coming from. As I investigated, I found its origin in creature of darkness and evil. This creature was on its way to kill a family it believed to be part of some prophecy. I saw this creature kill the father, before going after the mother and the child. As I was only there in spirit, I could do nothing to stop it, but as the mother pleaded for her childes life, I was able to speak to her. I told her that, though I wouldn't be able to get there in time to save her, I could save her child if she summoned me. She agreed, and right before the creature killed her, she was able to summon me. I got there, just as she fell to the ground dead. I was angry, angry at this creature for killing two innocent people and planing to kill a small child, and angry at myself for not being able to act sooner. The creature demanded me to leave, so that it could kill the child, and when I refused, it tried to kill me. I turned its magic on itself, before taking the child and burning the creatures body. Now I have a child to raise, and no way of doing it without causing great harm to him."

As he told her the story, Meridia turned from angry to thoughtful, and when he had finished, she just looked at him. As they reached the room the child was in, she turned to him again.

"I'm happy you did what you did, and killed that creature, but I still don't understand why you need _my_ help?"

As they entered the room, he turned to her.

"I need you to help me raise the child."

At those words, Meridias jaw dropped, and she just looked at him. Once the shock had passed, she spoke.

" _Excuse_ me!?"

Sheogorath sighed at her reaction.

"Aye, I know how it sounds, but I have three reasons for asking you this. First, amongst all the Daedric Princes, you are the only one who could help me, since there is apparently a prophecy naming him the one to vanquish a great evil and bring hope to his world. Who amongst the other Daedric Princes could fit that prophecy? Azura? While she is considered good, her powers doesn't fit, and neither does Nocturnal. Second, you are the Daedric Prince I was closest to before I became Sheogorath, while I was still a mortal, hunting the undead and vampires of Cyrodiil. And third, I can't raise him alone, my presence would only damage him. But you could negate that presence and help him grow into something good. Look, my dear, I promised his mother I would save him, but without your help, there is no way for me to do it without causing him damage, and frankly, I have no other idea what to do. So I offer you this; If you agree to help me raise him, I plan on creating a land between our two Realms, so that neither of us have to leave our Realms, yet still be there for him. Together, we can raise him to be a force of good in his world, and give us both access to a new realm, into which no other Daedric Prince can enter. What do you say?"

Thinking, Meridia stepped over to the cot, and looked down on the child. The child was awake, and met her golden gaze with his own emerald-green eyes. His hair was black, and when she reached down to stroke it, he laughed. Feeling a smile form on her lips, she turned to Sheogorath as he came and stood beside her.

"I agree to your proposal, Sheogorath. I will help you raise him."

Meridia smiled, and reached out to touch his hand. When she touched his hand, they both froze, as their magic started to swirl around them, mixing and connecting. As the magic started to slow down, it stretched out and into the cot, enveloping the child. Looking at each other in shock, Meridia and Sheogorath realized that they could now feel each other on a more personal level than before. Not only could they feel each others presence, but also each others feelings and mood. Then they realized that they could also feel the child the same way. Looking down into the cot, they saw that the magic had changed the child. He no longer had black hair, but rather a color of molten gold laced with silver, and his eyes were no longer pure emerald-green, but more like sunlight seen through the leaves of a tree. He now looked like a mixture of them, marking him as their son.

They could both feel his emotions, his happiness and his joy, and when they both looked at each other, they realized that they felt the same. Reaching down, Sheogorath picked up the child and held him in his arms. Turning to Meridia, he let her take the child, watching as she began to smile while cradling the child in her arms. Looking up at him, she asked. "So, what shall we name him?"

Thinking for a moment, Sheogorath answered; "Halios Meridian Sheoth"

Smiling down on the child, Meridia gently whispers; "My little Halios."

* * *

On Earth, the name Harry Potter disappears from the book belonging to the Ministry of Magic, which contains all the names of all wizards and witches in Great Britain, and the book belonging to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, in which the names of those who are to enroll in the school are recorded as soon as they are born, only to be replaced with Halios Meridian Sheoth.

* * *

 **So, this is a cross-over between Harry Potter and The Elder Scrolls. I have red other stories, in which Harry is saved from Voldemort by either Aedra or Daedra and given to a hero of the Elder Scrolls (Dragonborn, Hero of Kvatch, Nerevarine). But what would happen if he was raised by the one who saved him? In this story, he will be raised by Sheogorath and Meridia. Harry (or Halios) will be somewhat overpowered in this story (C'mon, he is being raised by two gods, what do you expect?), but not by much, since that would take the fun out of his adventures. I'll try and be as lore-friendly as possible, but one change will be that his scar is just a normal scar, Voldemorts essence having been purged by Meridias light as she touches Harry for the first time. And as for Sheogorath and Meridia... Well, there's no way they would become a couple if you were to follow the lore, but I ship them, so...**

 **Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this story. Please let me know what you think in the review section.**


	2. WARNING, CONTENT MAY SPOIL THE STORY

First of all, I would like to thank you readers for the feedback given to this story.

Secondly, the next chapter is on its way, and will be up within a few days. I write this however, to clear up a few things concerning the story and explain some upcoming elements. So, if you want to be surprised by the story; **DON'T READ THIS.**

* * *

The first thing to mention, and the most asked question is; Why does Sheogorath care if Voldemort is cruel? It's quite simple, madness does not mean cruel. The original Sheogorath was 100% Daedra, which meant he didn't care about the concept of right or wrong as we know it. But the Sheogorath in the story, he was once a mortal, and a hero to boot! This means that he would have a strong moral compass, which in turn makes his reaction to Voldemort not only possible, but highly probable.

And then there's Halios (or Harry, if there was any confusion around the name). Some have asked how old he will be when he goes to Hogwarts, and to that, I can only say; physically, he will look like a 11-12 year old, but he will have a mental age of about 30. He will also be somewhat taller and have a bit more meat on his bones, as he won't be starved and malnourished, since that was caused by the Dursleys. As for his personality, he will have Meridias good nature and dislike of dark creatures and dark magic, combined with Sheogoraths (surprisingly high) intellect and love of jokes and pranks.

Other than that, he will be androgynous up till book three, after which, he will be able to change from male to female at wish. I choose to do this, since Daedras don't have genders, but usually choose to look either male of female once they reach a certain level of control over their powers (the exception being Boethia, who switches between male and female daily, and Hermaeus Mora, who is just a mass of darkness and tentacles).

And as for the question if the Wabbajack would make an appearance in the story; Yes, but not until much later. Halios will be given a wand, but for what it will contain and what its abilities are, it will be revealed in chapter 3 or 4. He will be able to use wandless magic, but only healing and illusions in the beginning.

I will leave it at this, so that I don't reveal to much of the story right now, but more detailed explanations will be given as the story progressess.


	3. Chapter 2

**This chapter ended up taking longer to write than I had originally thought, and may not be that interesting, but in the next chapter, things will start to pick up, as we enter plot territory. Anyway, this story has become far more popular than I could have ever dreamt of, so thanks to all of you who read and like it.  
**

 **Other than that, I made a slight mistake in the explenation part I posted. Meridia doesn't hate "Dark" creatures, she hates "Undead" creatures.**

* * *

 **A New Life**

Followed closely by Meridia, who was still holding Halios in her arms, Sheogorath returned to his throne-room and set upon the task to create a new plane of Oblivion, so that he and Meridia had a place to raise Halios together. He began by stretching out the border of his realm like a bubble, towards Meridias domains. Just before the border would close behind the newly created bubble, he froze the borders and created a gate, six feet wide and twelve feet tall, sealing the borders. He then set upon expanding the bubble, making it larger and larger, stopping when it was ten miles in diameter. Nodding to himself, he reinforced the walls of the bubble before he began to fill it with enough matter to form the foundation of the land he was about to create. Slowly, he formed and island, five miles across, and surrounded it with clear water, forming a sea. On the south end of the island, he created a pristine beach, the sand soft as silk and white as snow. To the north, he placed some mountains, which tops was covered with never-ending snow, letting a small stream of pure water slowly flow towards the sea. In the middle, he put plains, on which he built a large house, in which they would live.

Feeling pleased with what he had made, he turned to Meridia and bid her link her realm with the one he had just created. Following his example, Meridia stretched the borders of her realm towards the newly created one, and as soon as the borders met, she created a passageway from her realm to the new one. Stepping in to the new realm from her side, she then created a sun to cast its light on the realm, and she filled the realm with life, bringing forth plant-life and animals to inhabit the realm. Once that was done, she called on some of her servants, to have them live on the island, so that Halios wouldn't be alone as he grew up. As the new inhabitants of the realm settled, she and Sheogorath returned to New Sheoth, to pick up Halios so that they could become a family in their newly created home.

* * *

 _Earth, 3 month after Voldemorts attack on the Potters, Dumbledores office._

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, was not a happy wizard. While Voldemort was dead, the death of James and Lily Potter, and the disappearance of their son, Harry, was a huge loss to the wizarding world. More so, since even after three months, there had been no trace to indicate where young Harry could be. The only saving grace was that he was sure Harry was still alive, but lived somewhere outside Britain and was apparently adopted, since his name had disappeared from the school ledger, only to have another name take its place. It didn't help either that the location he was at kept changing between "The Shivering Isles" and "The Colored Rooms".

Across from Dumbledore sat a man filled with mixed emotions. Sirius Black, close friend of James and Lily Potter, and Harry's godfather, were feeling conflicting emotions. On one hand, he felt satisfied, for just a week prior, he had captured Peter Pettigrew, the one who had betrayed the Potters, and given him to the DMLE (Department of Magical Law Enforcement) to be judged and sent to Azkaban. On the other hand, he felt the grief of having his best friend killed together with his wife, and their child was missing, the child HE was godfather to.

"Are you _sure_ there is no way to trace the one who took Harry, Dumbledore?"

"I've tried everything I can think of, Sirius", Dumbledore answered with a sigh. "And so far, there has been no indication to who took him, though we now know where he is, if only by the name of the place. I've look through the school library and even petitioned the Ministry to search through their banned tomes, but so far, I've found nothing."

"Where is he? The Black library has more books of the darker type than any other library in the country, so tell me the name of the place he is, and I'll search the library as fast as I can for any information I can find."

"Very well, Sirius. The location keeps changing, so he is either in a place called 'The Shivering Isles' or in a place called 'The Colored Rooms'. At least, that's where Hogwarts magic say he is."

As he heard the names, Sirius scowled. It was something about them that sounded familiar, but he could not remember why. After he'd made sure he would remember the names, he rose to his feet and started to leave.

"Oh? Going already, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah, I have plans for tonight, so I have to return home and make sure everything is in order."

"Anything about those plans you can tell your old headmaster?"

Sirius looked down sheepishly before rubbing his neck and answering.

"Well, I've been thinking about settling down now that the war is over, and... well..."

"Oho! So Sirius Black, the biggest womaniser to ever leave this school, has decided to settle down?", Dumbledore looked at him with amusement in his eyes. "If you don't mind, could you tell me how you came to that decision?"

"Well, you remember that mission I had that took me to Germany in search for allies in our battle against Voldemort about two years ago?"

Dumbledore nods.

"You see, I met someone while in Freiburg im Breisgau", Sirius continues. "Her name is Estée Weiss, and she comes from a family with magic. Her father name is Bruno Weiss, and he is a Potion Master, specializing in Healing potions, and her mothers name is Iréne Weiss neé Delacroix, and owns a small café... Anyway, Estée had just finished her education at Beauxbatons, and was helping her mother in her café when I met her. We started talking, ended up going out a couple of times, and, well, simply enjoyed each others company. We became very close in a short amount of time, and when it was time for me to return here, we had promised to marry once the war was over. What I didn't know at the time was that I had given her a 'gift', so to speak..."

Dumbledore looked like an owl where he sat behind his desk, eyes wide and staring.

"You don't mean..?"

"She gave birth to our daughter last May, and I had hopped that my daughter and Harry would have been able to grow up together, but unless we can find him... Anyway, they will arrive in London on monday, and we plan to be wed this summer."

"And your daughter? What's her name?", Dumbledore asked, a genuine smile spreading across his face.

"Seren. Seren Black-Weiss."

* * *

 _In a realm yet unnamed, in the home of Halios_

It had been some time now since they had moved in to their new home, and surprisingly, everything was going well. Both Sheogorath and Meridia could control what happened in their own realms from where they now lived, without it being harder than normal. So when everything was set up, they decided to call a meeting with the other Daedric Princes, in order to introduce Halios to them. After they sent out the invitations, they began prepare for the arrival of the other Daedric Princes.

"I can't wait to see their reactions when we present Halios to them!", Sheogorath said, rubbing his hands together. Meridia just smiled at his antics, as she reached down to pick up Halios from the cot he was resting in.

"Then it's fortunate the last of our brethren just arrived, Sheo", she said. "Now, shall we go and shock them?"

Sheogorath laughed and offered his arm to her, and then led her towards the meeting-room. As they reach the room the other Daedric Princes are in, Sheogorath turns to Meridia.

"Now, I'll be going in first to greet the, and when they ask why we wanted this meeting, I'll call you in and you present Halios to them. And then we watch how they react."

With those words, he went in to the room in which the other Daedric Princes now sat. As he entered the room, 13 pairs of eyes (plus whatever the things Hermaeus Mora uses to see with are) fixed on him as he came to stand at the short end of the table they sat around.

"So, Sheogorath, why have you called for this meeting?", asked Azura, the Lady of Twilight. "Only three times before have we all met like this, so unless you've tried to invade Nirn while the rest of us weren't looking, I can see no reason for this meeting."

"Ah, yes, we called you here because we have an announcement to make.", answered Sheogorath.

"We?", said a confused Molag Bal.

Sheogorath smiled before he turned towards the door.

"Meridia, if you could come in here, please?"

The sitting Daedric Princes turned towards the door as Meridia entered, holding Halios in her arms. Their eyes followed her as she walked up and stopped next to Sheogorath.

"Fellow Daedras, we would like to introduce you to our child, Halios Meridian Sheoth.", she said as she held forth the child. Then they stopped and watched as their colleagues stopped working. Sanguine was rolling on the floor, choking on the wine he had been drinking when they had announced Halios. Mehrunes Dagon had somehow impaled two of his hand on his own horns when he tried to grab his head in shock. Hermaeus Mora had frozen so perfectly, he looked like some type of octopus frozen in black ice. Hircine looked more like a deer caught in the headlights than the predator he was (not a sexual one, mind you). Azura and Nocturnal both sat for a moment with their mouths open in shock, before squealing and rushing to Meridia, where they crowded her and Halios while bombarding her with questions.

Once the rest of the Daedric Princes had recovered, Sheogorath and Meridia laid out a few rules. First, this realm (which would become Halios domain once he got older) was a neutral zone, no scheming or acts of aggression were allowed. Second, they could come and visit whenever they liked, but under no circumstances were they to bring anything that could cause damage, either to the realm or its inhabitants. And lastly, if any of them wished, they could become an aunt or an uncle to Halios and help raise him. Azura and Nocturnal immediately jumped on the opportunity to remain close to Halios (even if they aren't humans, few females can resist a small child). And, strangely enough, so did Hircine and Hermaeus Mora.

Once everyone had agreed to those rules, the others left the realm and Sheogorath and Meridia could begin raising Halios.

* * *

 _5 years later_

Years had passed since Halios had been introduced to his fellow Daedra, and he was finally beginning to waken the powers he had, and the aspect he would represent. It would go slowly, and take at least another 20 years before he reached full maturity and gained full control of his essence. At the moment, he only had some minor healing skills and a somewhat extensive knowledge of illusions, but within a year or two, he would be able to change his shape at will, so that he could find out which side he would prefer. But for the moment, he was stuck in the middle, as neither man nor woman.

The day he began exhibit the signs of awakening to his powers, his parents took him to a room in the house he'd never seen before. In it was a statue of a woman with long, flowing hair, dressed in a loose dress that left her arms bare. Her face was androgynous, but with a hint more femininity than masculinity. She held her arms out, as if to welcome someone, and her face was adorned with sad but loving smile. As they stood in front of the statue, Sheogorath told him the story behind the statue and who the woman was. When he had finished the story, Halios decided that this statue was going to be his sign, that it should be the centre of his shrines, in order to honour the woman who had given him life.

* * *

 _Black family library, October 31_ _st_ _1986_

It had taken him almost five years to search through his ancestral library, but the hardest part was still to come. There was only ten tomes left to search through, but each of those were warded, and would require months of preparations for him to be able to read them safely. Sirius Black had almost given up on finding his godson, but he struggled on, if only so that he could find out where he was.

He sighed and picked up one of the books at random. It didn't have a title, as far as he could see, only a symbol that looked like an upside-down 'U' with one side slightly longer than the other and a dot in the middle. Putting away the other books in a safe place, he took the book and went into one of the ritual chambers he'd built, so that he could release the wards around the book without risking his wife and daughters lives.

It took him three days to remove the wards, and another two to counter the curse on the book long enough to allow him to read it. The book contained information about ancient deities, called Daedric Princes, and their domains, which where located in something called Oblivion. Many of the deities were clearly evil, representing things like rape, betrayal, murder and destruction. A few were more neutral, representing things like the night and day cycle, knowledge or hunting. Only one was clearly good, since she represented life and held a deep hatred for everything that made a mockery of life, especially that which is undead.

It was then he came across a phrase he recognized. The Colored Rooms. According to the book, that was the name of the deity Meridias realm. He quickly began skimming through the pages of the book, until he found the other place his godson supposedly were. He soon found out that the Shivering Isles were the realm of the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath.

Sinking back into the chair he sat in, Sirius simply sat for a moment, staring at nothing. Well, at least he now knew were his godson was, but _how_ had he ended up in the hands of two gods?

Shaking his head, he rose to his feet. He needed to speak with Dumbledore.


	4. Chapter 3

**Ok, time for some answers.**

 **Will there be some bashing? Not actively, no. But in my opinion, Ron's a wanker, and Dumbledore's just weird. For all I know, his 'Greater Good' is ten men, wearing adult diapers, eating a 30 course buffet, and one dish contains a strong laxative.**

 **Will the story contain slash? Maybe, but not in that way. I plan on pairing Halios with Tonks, and while they will meet in a couple of chapters, they will not become a couple until late book 3 or early book 4. I also plan on give Tonks metamorphmagus abilities a boost after a while, giving her the ability to change her gender for short amounts of time, say, 2-5 hours at the longest.**

 **Halios will NOT meet the Divines. This story takes place about 90 years AFTER the events in TES:Skyrim, so unless the next Elder Scrolls game comes out before the story is finished, Halios will not go anywhere near Tamriel, otherwise things might diverge to much from the Lore. Some of the Daedric Princes may make an appearance later on in the story, though.**

 **I will be using the words hir and sie when describing Halios. Hir is a gender neutral possessive pronoun, a combination of his and her, and sie is a gender neutral personal pronoun.**

* * *

 **3\. Calling a God**

 _June 30th, 1991, Dumbledores office_

"Are you sure, Sirius?", asked Dumbledore with a small frown on his face.

"Yes. I've been researching this for the last 5 years, and last month I finally found a way to contact with whatever entity who took Harry all those years ago", answered Sirius. "According to what I've found, the one who took Harry was either know as Sheogorath or Meridia. As for who we should try and contact, I would suggest Meridia, since she is called the 'Daedric Prince of Life and Lady of Infinite Energies', while Sheogorath is simply known as 'the Mad God'. Meridia is said to be a good deity, so she might be more inclined to listen to us."

"Hmm... Very well. When would you say is the best time to contact her?", asked Dumbledore with a small nod.

"At noon today, when the sun is at its highest. As she is the Daedric Prince of Life, we will use a part of an undead creature as a sacrifice to be able to summon her presence to us. That way, we can talk to her without any major risk involved."

After hearing Sirius explanation, Dumbledore nodded in agreement and they started working on the ritual the would, hopefully, allow them to find Harry.

* * *

 _At the same time, Halios realm_

Meridia sat next to the fountain in the courtyard and watched her child train. Half a year ago, Halios had begun showing signs of reaching the point where sie would discover what aspects sie represented. So far, it seemed that sie had an affinity for music and healing, for when sie spoke, hir voice sounded as if instruments were playing in the background. Hir laughter sounded like bells, hir whispers the soothing melody of a flute, and during the rare occasions sie raised hir voice, it sounded like a war horn over a battlefield. And when sie sang, hir voice could speed up the healing of wounds and purge the listeners bodies from minor poisons and curses. Hir songs would most likely grow in strength as sie got older.

As Halios had yet to decide if sie would be a man or a woman, sie shifted between the two depending on hir moods. Right now, sie was in hir female form. Tall for hir age, sie was just shy of 5'1. Hir hair, once golden with silver highlights, was now a reddish gold with golden highlights, and cascaded down to hir mid back. Hir eyes was a luminescent green, like the sun shining through an emerald, which turned dark green when sie was angry. Hir face is fair, yet not fully feminine, and hir skin is healthy pale, smooth and free of all kinds of blemishes. Sie was dressed in a pure white, knee-length dress, held together with a soft leather belt. The dress could just as easily be classified as a tunic, and on hir feet, sie had soft leather sandals.

As Meridia watches her child with a smile on her face, she feels the pull of a magic ritual made to summon her to a place where one of her shrines wasn't present. It had been thousands of years since this ritual was last used, and what more, it didn't originate from Nirn. Her curiosity sparked, she relaxed and let her mind be pulled towards the point where the ritual was being performed.

* * *

 _Hogwarts grounds, noon_

Standing near the Black Lake, Sirius and Dumbledore had just finished the ritual and was now waiting for something to happen. As the seconds slowly ticked on, they started to wonder if the ritual had failed. That's when a presence suddenly descends upon them, and they hear a voice from all around them.

 _ **~I am Meridia, Daedric Prince of Life, and Lady of Infinite Energies. Who are you, and why have you summoned me?~**_

Dumbledore swallowed hard before answering. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, and I'm the Headmaster for Hogwarts school of Witchcraft an Wizardry. Beside me is Sirius Black, an old friend and former student. It was his work that gave us the ritual to summon you. As for why we summoned you, we need your help finding a child who disappeared almost ten years ago. The child's name was Harry Potter, but according to the magic of Hogwarts, it's now Halios Meridian Sheoth, and could at one time either be found in the Shivering Isles or the Colored Rooms, but is now in a 'realm unnamed'. Since Sirius research found that you are the ruler of the Colored Rooms, he thought it best to speak to you about Harry, and I agreed, which is why we summoned you."

 _ **~And why would you need to find my child?~**_

At that statement, both Sirius and Dumbledore jumped in shock. "C-c-child..?", stammered Sirius.

 _ **~Yes, Halios Meridian Sheoth, child of Meridia and Sheogorath. Now, why do you seek to find him?~**_

Taking a step forward, Sirius spoke up. "I was a close friend of Harry's parents, and they made me his godfather and legal and magical guardian in case anything happened to them. Ten years ago, a Dark wizard named Voldemort got it into his head that Harry was named his destroyer due to a prophesy, and the last of October that year Harry and his parents, Lily and James Potter, were betrayed and Lily and James killed. I was the first to arrive at their house, only to find them and Voldemort dead, and Harry missing. It took me five years to find any information regarding his location, and another five to find the ritual we used to summon you. As for why we want to find him, _I_ just want to meet him again."

When Sirius had finished speaking, Dumbledore took over. "As I said, I'm the headmaster for a school that teaches magic to youngsters, and young Harry was signed up to enter the school at his birth. And now Halios name is in the school ledger, having taken Harry's place. Normally, we would send a letter to the possible student, informing them about their acceptance to the school, along with a list of the materials needed for the school year and the date the school begins. And if the student is muggleborn – their parents not being part of the magical community, that is – we also have one of the schools teacher meet them and introduce them to the magical world, along with the information on how to reach the school. The materials needed can be bought in the Diagon Alley in London, which entrance lies behind a pub by the name 'The Leaky Cauldron'. Since we have no way of sending said letter to Halios, we needed to make contact with someone who could."

When he had finished explaining why they had summoned her, there was a silence for a little while, before they could sense a massive gathering of magic around them. Suddenly, the ground started to shake before splitting open, and a statue of a woman with her hands raised towards the sky emerged.

 _ **~Place the letter at the foot of my shrine, and I will make sure my child reads it. And you, Sirius Black, if my child decides to enter this school, you will find us at this... Leaky Cauldron, at noon two weeks before the school starts. But remember, it is his choice whether or not he'll allow you into her life.~**_

Dumbledore drew his wand and summoned the letter, before laying it at the foot of the statue. A flash of light blinded them for a moment, and when they could see again, the letter was gone.

 _ **~Fare thee well, mortals.~**_

And with those words, the presence disappeared. Silently, they both turned around and slowly made their way towards the headmasters office, deep in thoughts. Sirius was happy. His godson was alive and well, yet he felt a slight feeling of dread. What if Harry decided not to attend Hogwarts, and felt no need to meet his godfather? He decided to speak with his wife and daughter when he got home, and ask them if they wanted to join him at the Leaky Cauldron the day Harry might return.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, was feeling conflicted feelings. On one hand, Harry was safe and loved, while on the other hand, he was no longer just a child, who Dumbledore could mould into a perfect champion of the Light in order to fight Voldemort once he returned. But, if Harry opted to come to Hogwarts, maybe he could be nudged in the right direction..?

Once they had reached the office, Sirius said goodbye to the old headmaster, before flooing home, leaving Dumbledore sitting at his desk, trying to figure out how to make Harry help him defeat Voldemort.

* * *

As soon as he had returned home, Sirius went to find his wife and daughter. He found them in the library, where his daughter was practising first year spells under the watchful eyes of her mother. When he entered the library, they both looked towards him, and with a huge smile on her face, his daughter ran up to him, with his wife slowly walking behind her.

" _DADDY!"_ , Seren shouted as she jumped up into her fathers arms, giving him a large hug. His wife came up next to him with a smile on her face. But said smile turned into a frown as she saw the look in his eyes.

"What's wrong, dear? Has something happened?", she asked.

Sighing, he set his daughter down and motioned them to sit on the nearby couch.

"You both know about the death of the Potter family almost ten years ago, and the disappearance of Harry Potter, my godson. Over the years I've been researching where he could be and how to contact him. Earlier today, Dumbledore and I were able to perform a ritual that summoned the presence of a deity with connections to Harry. Dumbledore gave the deity the Hogwarts acceptance letter, and I explained the situation about Harry. She said that _if_ Harry were to accept going to Hogwarts, they would be at the Leaky Cauldron at noon, two weeks before the school starts."

Sinking deeper into the couch, he continues; "And I don't know how to feel about it. The joy of being able to meet my godson again battles with the dread of him choosing not to return here."

Knowing how close he had been to Harry's father, his wife and daughter simply hugged him, not wanting him to feel sad.

"Dear", his wife said. "When the day comes, we will be there with you, waiting for Harry, who could have been our son and Seren's brother."

"Yes, dad", Seren said, nodding vigorously. "I would love to meet Harry and have him as a friend!"

Smiling at the two women in his life, he hugged them close.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, Halios realm_

Meridia rose to her feet, holding a letter in her hand. Calling her child over, she gave hir the letter.

"Halios, this letter comes from the same world as you once did, and is an invitation to a school that teaches magic. I also have a message from a man named Sirius Black. He is supposedly your godfather, and would very much like to meet you. It is your choice if you want to attend the school or meet this Sirius. Just know that your father and I will support your decision, whatever it may be."

Nodding, Halios took the letter from hir mother and opened it. After reading it through, sie turned towards hir mother.

"Mother, I believe that I shall attend this school. As you said, I'm originally from that world, and it would only be prudent to have knowledge about ones origin. Besides, since I'm yet unknown on Nirn, any chance to get some followers that can't be seen by the Aedra, would only be good in the long run. And the chance to get some friends that won't bow to my every whim is a minor dream that I have."

Hir mother smiled at hir. "Very well. I'll inform your father so that we can begin the preparations for the ritual that will take us there. At noon, two weeks before the school starts, we will transport to a pub by the name 'Leaky Cauldron' in the city called London. There we will most likely meet Sirius Black, and then we will gather the supplies for your first school-year."

Halios smiled back at her. "Thank you, mother."

* * *

 **I haven't been able to write as much lately, as I've been sick AND gotten a new job. But anyway, I will be continuing the story, but I don't know how regularly I will be able to update, so don't worry if there's no new chapters being uploaded in a while, I just need to re-read the books, since its been almost 8 years since I last red them.**

 **Next chapter: Meeting the Black family, shopping, and the trip to Hogwarts (hopefully).**


	5. Chapter 4

**Due to popular demands, Halios gender-changes will be kept to a minimum (maybe once or twice in each chapter, at most), and the pronoun used will change from he to she and back, depending on his/her gender.**

 **Shopping with gods**

 _August 18_ _th_ _, The Leaky Cauldron, Noon_

As he sat at a table, with his wife and daughter next to him, Sirius Black was getting really nervous. Today was the day his godson _might_ return, and it was not long until the promised time. As they came closer and closer to noon, Sirius began pacing back and forth next to the table.

"Dear, I know you are nervous, but please, try to relax", his wife, Estée, said.

Running his right hand through his hair, Sirius stopped for a moment, before sinking down next to his daughter. Sighing, he rested his arms on the table and gave Estée a tired smile. "I know, I know... it's just..."

"Don't worry, dad", Seren said as she hugged him. "I'm _sure_ cousin Harry will come."

Smiling down on his daughter, Sirius relaxed and watched the clock, as the last minute before noon passed. Then he felt magic gathering in the middle of the pub, magic similar to the kind he had felt when he and Dumbledore had performed the ritual that contacted Meridia. Suddenly, a portal opened up, and three figures stepped through, into the pub. One was a man, a bit over 6 feet tall, with white hair and dressed in a strange suite, split in crimson on the left and purple on the right and holding a cane. The next were a woman, about 5'7 tall, with long, flowing golden hair, dressed in a white dress that billowed as she moved. Last, a boy came through. He was about 5 feet tall, had red hair and green eyes. He was dressed in a white shirt and loose black trousers, and had soft leather boots on his feet's. As Sirius looked closer, he could see both James and Lily in the boy, yet there was also traces of the two persons that stood next to him. Standing up, he slowly made his way towards the trio.

 _Halios POV_

Halios stood in the courtyard with his mother, waiting for his father to complete the ritual that would open a portal to his former world. He smiled a little, as he thought of the prospect of new knowledge and possible friends.

"There! The ritual is complete, and is bound to these rings", Sheogorath said as he turned around, holding three silver rings in his hand. "Now, for the portal to open, we simply pour or magic into one of these rings and throw it a few feet in front of us. Once the portal is open, it will stay that way for about 10 minutes, or until the one who threw the ring steps through. Oh, and don't worry about the rings. The ring used will be on the same side as the caster, once the portal has closed."

Taking a ring, Halios started to gather his magic inside it. "Well then, father, let us be off and we shall see what the future holds in store."

With those words, he threw the ring in front of him, and watched as a portal opened. Turning back towards his parents, Halios smiled as they stepped through the portal together. The world flashed purple, before they stepped out from the portal in a shabby looking pub. Letting his gaze sweep over the interior of the pub, he noticed a man and two women, one around 30 and one who looked like she was in her early teens. The man was slowly walking towards them, and the women had their eyes fixed on them, from where they sat behind the man.

As he came closer, the man's eyes seemed to light up when he got a better look at them.

"Harry..?", he asked with a soft voice.

 _Normal POV_

"Harry..?"

As Sirius said that name, the three in front of him turned towards him. The young man (?) gave him a small smile before answering in a melodic voice.

"Harry? Yes, that was my name once, before my father saved me. Now, I'm Halios Meridian Sheoth, the child of Sheogorath and Meridia. And you must be Sirius Black, one of the ones who used a ritual to summon my mother. A friend to my mortal parents and my... godfather..? I believe it was? It is good to meet you, allow me to introduce my mother and father; Meridia ("Pleased to meet you."), and Sheogorath ("Greetings, lad.")."

After a brief moment of confusion, Sirius smiled before pulling Halios into a hug. "Harr... Halios, I'm so relieved that you are okay. When I arrived at your parents house, and found Lily and James dead, and you missing, it broke my heart."

Releasing Halios from his embrace, Sirius calls his family over. "Your mum and dad had decided that, if anything were to happen to them, I was to become your guardian and substitute father. That was why they made me your godfather. But since you now has a real god for a father ("Hah! Good one!" "Quite, Sheo" "Yes, dear..."), I hope that me and my family can at least become friends with you."

"Well, if you want that, you'd better introduce us, then", Halios said with a lopsided grin.

"Oh, right! Ehm..." Turning around, Sirius pulled his wife and daughter close to him. "This is my lovely wife, Estée, and our spitfire of a daughter, Seren. Seren will be starting Hogwarts this year as well, so we had hoped to join you today as it is your first time in the Diagon Alley."

Meridia gave them a smile as they greeted each other, before turning towards Sirius. "I think we all are appreciating your offer, and would be happy to agree. But first I must ask, what currency does your world use?"

Reaching into his pocket, Sirius pulls out three coins. "This is our money. The small one is called a Knut, the silver is a Sickle and the large, gold one is a Galleon. There's 29 Knuts to a Sickle, and 17 Sickles to a Galleon", he explained.

"Then, is there a place were we can trade or sell some gold and jewels, so that we can some of the local currency?" Meridia asks with a frown.

"That would be Gringotts Bank, and we'll go there first, but you don't have to worry about money, as Halios is the Heir to the Potter family, and thus has a trust vault he can access for occasions like this. He won't be able to touch the main family vault until he's 17, but since the trust vault is set for 10.000 Galleons a year, I don't think there's going to be any problems."

At this point, Sirius was interrupted by Sheogorath, who – like the unpredictable creature he is – clapped his hands in excitement and proclaimed that 'Adventures was waiting for them', before Meridia gave him a smack on the back of his head to calm him down.

As Meridia spoke with Sirius about money, Halios began a conversation with Seren. It went slow at first, but once they had gotten over the initial shyness, they hit it off really well. Seren was really interested in the whole daedric thing, and when she asked what the difference between humans and daedra was, Halios just smiled and started to change. First, he started to shrink, from his previous tall 5'4", to a more normal 4'7". Then his arms and legs began to slim down, his chest and hips filling out a minor bit, and his face became softer. When all was done, he was now a she.

Seren just stared, which caused Halios to begin laughing. This caught the attention of their parents, and when Sirius saw her, he had to double check, since she now looked like a younger version of Lily Potter. Then he went into shock. Once he was back with them, she explained that daedra were beings of magic, and thus didn't have genders originally, but those of the daedra who belonged to the upper echelon could change to fit either gender at will, and since magic itself had changed her after she'd been saved by Sheogorath, she could too.

Still a bit shell-shocked, Sirius led them out the back of the pub and knocked on the brick wall to open the door to the Alley.

He then turned towards the three daedra with a smile. "Welcome... To the Diagon Alley!"

Halios and Meridia stared in awe at the magical shopping district, while Sheogorath looked around in glee. As Sirius guided them along, they continued to stare at the different stores as they passed. When they reached the large marble building that was Gringotts, Sirius turned to them.

"Oh, before I forget... here", he said, handing over three golden keys to Halios. "These keys are the Potter vault keys. The smallest one goes to your trust vault, while the two other goes to the main vaults. You will need them to access your inheritance."

After Halios had taken the keys, they continued up towards the bank. As they got closer to the entrance, they noticed that the Goblins guarding it got more and more tense, their gaze flickering over the three daedra. Entering the bank, they walked to the closest free teller.

"Greetings, master Goblin", Meridia says. "My child here has come to make a withdrawal from her vault."

"And which vault would that be?", the teller asked with a sneer.

"The Potter trust vault."

This makes the goblin look up quickly before asking; "Oh? And which one of you is supposed to be the Potter heir?"

"I am", Halios answered, taking a step forward and holding up the vault key. The goblin teller just looked at her before snorting.

"Very well, then. The key is real, but you'll have to take an inheritance test, since the real Potter heir is male, and you, are not."

Halios simply nodded. The teller addressed a goblin next to him. "Griphook, take these customers to the Potter Account Manager. This one", he said, making a small wave towards Halios. "claims to be the Potter heir, so make sure an inheritance test is available and ready to be used."

The goblin named Griphook turned towards the group, and with a short "Follow me", he led them towards a room in the back of the bank. When they got the the closed door, he turned to them and said "Wait here", before knocking on the door and leaving. They stood there for almost ten minutes, before a voice calls "Enter!" and they open the door. Inside is a large oval table, with an older goblin sitting at one of the short ends. They all take a seat at the table, the family of daedra on one side of the table, the Black family on the other. The goblin looks at them.

"Greetings, I am Boneclaw, the Potter Account Manager. I heard that there was someone who claimed to be the Potter heir here to withdraw some gold, is that correct?", Boneclaw says, with a questioning look on his face.

"I do not _claim_ to be the Potter heir, I _am_." Halios answers, looking straight at the goblin.

"That remains to be seen." Boneclaw takes out a parchment and and a dagger with runes etched on its blade. "Use this dagger, and drop some of your blood on the parchment, and we'll see if you truly are who you claim you are. But be warned, if you are not the Potter heir, you will be punished by the magic of the ritual."

Halios simply nods, and grabs the dagger before dragging it across her palm, letting a few drops of blood drop down on the parchment before the wound close. The parchment flashes bright gold, before it starts to be filled with text. Everyone looks down on the parchment in interest once its completely full. It says;

 **Name: Halios Meridian Sheoth (Harry Potter)**

 **Gender: Male and Female**

 **Age: 11**

 **Parents: James and Lily Potter (By birth, deceased), Sheogorath and Meridia (Magical rebirth and Adoption)**

 **Godparents: Lord Sirius Orion Black (Godfather), Lady Alice Longbottom (Godmother)**

 **Inheritance:**

 **Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter by Blood (From James Potter)**

 **Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor by Blood (From Lily Potter neé Evans)**

 **Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Peverell by Blood (From James Potter)**

 **Heir to the Shivering Isles by Magic (From Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness)**

 **Heir to the Colored Rooms by Magic (From Meridia, Daedric Prince of Life and Lady of Infinite Energies)**

Boneclaw looks at the parchment before nodding. "Well, it seems you are telling the truth, and not only are you the heir to the Potters, but you are also the heir to the Gryffindor and Peverell families, which were though to be extinct. Please wait a moment, while I send for the Gryffindor and Peverell portfolios and Head of House rings."

With that, he called in another goblin, whom he spoke to quickly in Gobbledegook, before turning back to Halios.

"As we now have proof that you are the heir of House Potter, as its last member, you are now emancipated. Here is the Head of House ring", he hands over a polished, black wooden box, with the Potter Emblem engraved on the lid to Halios. She opens the box and takes out the ring, before putting it on her right hands middle finger. A bright flash happens, and she suddenly feels an influx of magic in her body.

"You are now the Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, but shall we call you Lord or Lady?", Boneclaw asks.

"Call me Lord, as gender has no real meaning for our kind", Halios answers.

"Very well." Boneclaw gives her a nod, when the doors opened and a goblin entered, carrying two portfolios and two older looking boxes. "Ah, it seems the Gryffindor and Peverell portfolios and rings are here. Now, before we continue, please put the rings on the same finger as the Potter one."

Halios took both boxes, opened the Gryffindor one first and put the ring on. A light flashed again, and just as with the Potter ring, she felt her magic increase. Then she opened the Peverell box, and put the ring on. Another flash, but this time, she felt no increase in magic. Instead, a sealed roll of parchment appeared on the table before her. Looking at Boneclaw, he nodded to her to open the scroll. Picking the scroll up, she broke the seal and opened the scroll. Reading the scroll, her eyes slowly grew larger as she red what the scroll said.

Looking at her with a worried look on her face, Meridia spoke. "Dear, what does it say?"

Blinking a couple of times to gather her thoughts, Halios answered. "It... it's a Marriage Contract, between the Head of House Peverell, and – and I'm reading this word for word here – 'the oldest female formless one of House Black'. Sirius, do you know what it means?"

Thinking hard for a while, Sirius frowns before answering. "Well, the only thing I can think of is this; a couple of centuries ago, the Black family was known for producing metamorphmagi, wizards and witches that could change how they looked freely, but that was long ago. As far as I know, there is only one metamorphmagus in Europe at this time. Does the contract have any names?"

Reading through the contract again, Halios finds two names, her own and one other.

"Yes, someone name Nymphadora Tonks. Do you know her?"

Sirius begins to laugh as he answer. "Oh, I do know her, quite well, actually. Little Nymmie is the daughter of one of my cousins, Andromeda Tonks neé Black, and the metamorphmagus I spoke about. She is about five years older than you, and is a student of Hogwarts, though I don't remember which house she is in. Does the contract say anything else?"

Glancing through the contract again, Halios shakes her head. "No, only that we are to be wed within one year after that we both has reach the age of seventeen, and that the contract is magically binding. We has to get married, or we will lose our magic"

"So no way to get out of it then. At least you'll have six years to get to know her before tying the knot."

Halios scowls at this. "That's not the problem. As a daedra, I will not die of old age. My father, Sheogorath, is close to three hundred years old in this reincarnation, and my mother is much older as she has never needed to reincarnate. Unless we can find a way to give Nymphadora the same type of immortality, the marriage will never work, and the contract will take our magic, and at least kill me, as daedra are beings of magic."

That killed Sirius good mood. "Then we have our work cut out for us, only six years to find way to make my little cousin immortal..."

After a few moments of silence, Meridia turns to Boneclaw and asks him to see take them to the Potter vault, so that they can withdraw some gold so they can shop for school supplies. Boneclaw tells her that its not needed and hands her a bag connected to the vault, which will summon the gold needed were-ever they are.

Thanking Boneclaw, they leave Gringotts to begin the shopping. As soon as they left the bank, Seren took Halios hand and pulled her along as the adults laughed quietly, walking behind them. First they went to Flourish and Blotts to pick up their books, as Seren already had a trunk, and Halios had gotten a bottomless chest Sheogorath had used when he was an adventurer. Then they went and bought their potion ingredients and cauldrons. After that, they went to Madam Malkin's to get their school robes and other necessary clothes. When they entered, they saw a blond boy being measured in the back as they were greeted by a clerk. "Hogwarts, my dears? Come with me, and we'll find your clothes."

They followed her back to were the boy stood and lined up next to him. He gave them a short look, gave Seren a short nod and a "Black...", to which she answered with a "Malfoy...", before turning his gaze towards Halios.

"Going to Hogwarts too? The name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. My father is on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and a close friend of the Minister of Magic. Do you play Quidditch? It's a crime that we can't bring our brooms during our first year, but if I talk with my father, I'm certain he can make it so I can bring my broom. Are you a Pureblood? Mudbloods really have no place amongst us, don't you agree?"

Halios simply gave him a look that said 'are you really that stupid and bigoted?' before shooting him down with a smirk.

"Pureblood? No, I don't think you could call me that, since my parents aren't part of the wizarding world. But make no mistake, blood means nothing. It's personality and skills that makes a person great, and you've just shown that you lack in both. Oh, and by the way, my name is Halios Meridian Sheoth."

As they spoke, the clerk had finished with Halios clothes, and told Halios that they where done, but she simply smiled and told the clerk that she wanted a full wardrobe for a male student too.

The clerk looked at her incredulous and asked why she would need that. Halios simply smiled and concentrated for a moment, changing into her male form.

"There. Now, can I have some male clothes, please?" he asked as both the clerk and the Malfoy brat stared at him. Shaking her head to remove the chock, the clerk swiftly went to work, and in no time he had his clothes.

Thanking the clerk and paying for the clothes, Halios and Seren left the shop and met up with their parents, before going to Ollivanders to get their wands. Stepping into the shop, they both looked around, trying to find the wand maker.

"Ah, welcome. I have been expecting you, Ms. Black-Weiss. I sold your fathers wand, 10 ¼ inches, cypress wood, with a core made of a Hungarian Horn-Tails heartstrings. Let us see which wand chooses you, shall we?"

With that, he turned around and picked a box from a shelf. Seren took it, but Ollivander took it back just as quickly. After about 30 wand, she found her wand. 11 ½ inches, cherry wood, with hair from a Unicorn, freely given. Perfect for charms and white magic. Then Ollivander turned to Halios. "Hmm... Strange... You are powerful, but I don't think any of my wands will choose you. For you, I will need to make a wand with special materials. The core will be the hardest part, but perhaps you could help with that?"

Halios turned towards his parents, and they both nodded before pulling a hair each from their heads. Halios did the same and handed the hairs over to Ollivander. Said wand-maker looked at the hair with great fascination. Halios filled him in on why they gave him the hairs. To say Ollivander was delighted to make a wand with the core of three godlike beings – hair freely given at that! – was an understatement. Ollivander promised that the wand would be finished the next day, and after they had paid for Serens' wand, they went to the Magical Menagerie, so that Seren could pick a pet to bring to Hogwarts. After almost an hour, she had finally found a pet; an Euroasian eagle-owl she named Athena. Halios didn't pick a pet, as he could create a familiar once he got home.

After a full day of shopping, they returned to the Leaky Cauldron. Saying goodbye and giving each-other hugs, they got ready to return home. But before they left, Halios created two small shrines, which he gave to Sirius and Seren, telling them that if they wanted to talk, they only had to concentrate in front of one of the shrines and think his name, and they would be able to talk to him. After promising Seren that they would sit together on the Hogwarts Express, Halios used his ring to open a portal home, and with a final wave, they went home.

 **This chapter took longer than planned, since I got a writers block for a couple of weeks, and for that, I apologize. In the meantime, I hope this longer chapter makes up for the wait. In the next chapter, Halios gets his wand, and they leave for Hogwarts. Next chapter will be up in mid to late January.**

 **Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and whatever else is politically correct these days. Oh, and Happy New Year!**

 **\- Baleygr**


	6. Chapter 5

**First of all, I want to thank you all for reading this story. 15 000+ views so far, and almost 90% of the reviews, both by users and those made by guests, are positive. So thanks again. No, let's continue the story. Secondly, I would like to apologize for the uneven gaps in chapter releases. This is due to three things: 1. It's been almost ten years since I red the books, and I don't own them, so I can't just look things up. 2. I have to re-make the plots from scratch, and that takes time. And 3. I'm on anti-depressive medication, so sometimes I simply can't write, due to how I feel. And finally, even though I don't answer reviews here, I read them all, good or bad, and take that they say into consideration when I write the story.**

 **Ride the magic train**

The next day, Halios returned to Ollivanders to get his wand. After being greeted by the old wand-maker, he was given the wand. Ollivander was almost jumping with glee, as Halios almost shone like the sun when he picked up the wand for the first time. The wand itself was 12 inches of Yggdrasil wood, with a triple core of Daedra hair. It was perfect for Transfiguration, Healing and Defence, though a bit impulsive in nature. Thanking Ollivander, Halios paid the wand-maker and made his way home. After showing his parents the wand, he began the procedure to create a familiar.

Over the next couple of weeks, Halios trained with his wand (not _that_ wand, you perverts), worked on his familiar and spent time with his new friend, Seren and her family. Soon, September 1st was upon them, and the family of Daedras travelled to Kings Cross Station, where they met up with the Black-Weiss family. On their way to the platform, they saw a group of ginger children following a somewhat round woman, also with ginger hair.

Turning to the three Daedra, Sirius pointed the group out. "See the group of gingers over there? That's the Weasley family. Arthur and Molly Weasley have three children in Hogwarts right now, with a fourth joining this year. Now, the oldest of those children, Percy, loves rules, and the the one who joins this year, Ronald, is a bit daft. But the two in the middle, the twins Fred and George, loves a good joke, and are known as the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts. Plus, they are loyal to those who becomes their friends."

Finished with his explanation, Sirius leads them to the entrance to platform 9 ¾ . Leading the way, he walked through the barrier, Seren and Halios following and Estée, Sheogorath and Meridia brining up the rear. The platform was filled with students and their families, the sound of excited children, hooting owls and laughter filled the air. After helping Seren and Halios lift their baggage onto the train, they hugged each-other goodbye.

"Now, remember" Sirius began, "have fun, make friends and learn a lot of new magic, ok? Don't worry about homework and such these first two – three years. As long as you pass your OWLs in your fifth year and your NEWTs in your seventh, you'll be all right."

This earned him a smack on the back of his head, courtesy of his wife. Giving him a stern look in response to his pouting, she turned to her daughter and Halios.

"You shouldn't listen to everything he says, but he has some valid points. Studying is important, but don't forget to have fun, too."

Seren gave her parents a smile. "I promise!" she said, Halios nodding in agreement. At that point, the train blew its whistle, and the two students quickly hugged their parents one last time, before boarding the train in search of an empty compartment, as the train began to leave the station.

Standing on the platform, watching the train leave, Sheogorath turned to Meridia with a question.

"Raising Halios has been fun, wouldn't you say? How about we try and give him a sibling?" Sheogorath says with a cocky grin. Meridia slowly nods, before she agrees. Barking a laugh, Sheogorath opens the portal home, and they say farewell to Sirius and Estée before leaving.

On the train, Halios and Seren had found an empty compartment, and were now sitting across from each other, while the train travelled towards Hogwarts.

"Hey, Halios?" Seren asked.

"Yes?"

"Which house do you think you'll be in?"

"Well, from what your dad has told us, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw seems to be the most likely for me. What about you?"

"Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Dad was in Gryffindor, but my curiosity is more of a Ravenclaw trait."

"True... Eh, as long as we remain friends, does it matter?"

"Not really, no. But still... I would not like to end up in Slytherin."

To this, Halios simply nodded. That's when the compartment door opened, and a pair of ginger heads peaked in.

"Excuse us, but – "

"We're looking for – "

"Harry Potter. Have – "

"You seen him?"

Both Halios and Seren looks at the twins, and Seren asks; "Why do you look for him?"

The twins walk in and start to explain themselves.

"We are trying – "

"To find him to – "

"Warn him. Our – "

"Younger brother, Ron – "

"Is looking for him too – "

"And we want to – "

"Give him a fair warning – "

"Before they meet, since or brother – "

"Is quite daft."

Nodding at the explanation, Halios asked for their names.

"Oh, that's right" one of the twins said and straightened his back. "I'm Gred – "

"And I'm Forge."

" **And we are the Weasley Twins!"** they both said in chorus, with huge grins plastered on their faces.

Laughing at their antics, they introduced themselves to the twins.

"I'm Seren Black-Weiss, daughter to Sirius Black-Weiss."

"And I'm Halios Meridian Sheoth, son to Meridia And Sheogorath, and formerly known as Harry Potter."

The twins stared at him with open mouths.

" **Wait,** _ **YOU'RE**_ **Harry Potter!?"** they both shouted.

While Seren snickered at the shocked expression on their faces, Halios just smiled.

"Yes I am. And thank you for the warning, we'll be on our guard."

The group continued to speak for a while, and as Seren had gotten a few of her fathers old notebooks from his and James Potters time in Hogwarts, they agreed to join the twins on their pranking crusade. After saying goodbye, the twins left to find their friend, Lee Jordan. Not long after they left, the door opened again, and another ginger kid looked in.

"I'm looking for Harry Potter, have you seen him?" the kid asked.

Both Halios and Seren shook their heads, and the kid left, muttering something about 'Harry Potter', 'fame' and 'best mates'. Glancing at each other, both Halios and Seren shivered at the thought of having such a shallow person as a 'friend'.

Soon, the snack trolley came by, and Seren bought enough candy for both her and Halios to have for the rest of the journey. As they sat there, eating of the candy and talking, someone knocked on the door. Telling the person to enter, the door opened and a bushy-haired girl looked in.

"Excuse me? Have any of you seen a toad? There's a boy named Neville who has lost his."

"Sorry, but we haven't. But give me a moment and I'll help you find it." Halios told the girl. Then he concentrated on a toad and used a clairvoyance spell. Following the spell with his mind, he soon found a toad, hiding in a compartment a few door down.

"There's a toad on the floor in the compartment three doors down. It might be the toad you're looking for. Oh, and while I remember it, would you like to join us for the rest of the trip?"

The girl gave him a bright smile and thanked him before leaving to find the toad. About 15 minutes later, she returned, with both her trunk and a shy-looking boy in tow. After putting away her trunk, the girl sat down next to Seren, and the boy sat next to Halios.

Turning to Halios, the girl thanked him for helping them find the toad before they introduced themselves.

"Thanks again for your help in finding Trevor. I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Neville Longbottom."

"Seren Black-Weiss. Nice to meet you."

"Halios Meridian Sheoth, formerly known as Harry Potter. I hope we can be friends."

The two newcomers looked at him with a stunned expression, before Hermionie leaned forward.

"Are you really?", she asked. "I thought you went missing after You-Know-Who attacked your family. Some books say that Dumbledore took you, and has been training you for years, while other believes you were with the Goblins..."

She continued to ramble on for a good ten minutes before she noticed the others stares and stopped. Halios sighed and shook his head.

"Those books you speak about, are nothing but fiction. As for were I've been... well, my father – that is, my adoptive father – took me from my parents house right after the attack and brought me to his home. There, I was magically and spiritually adopted by him and my mother. And as for what the books said I've done... lies, all of it. While I _have_ trained magic from an early age, I've done none of those things the books claim that I've done. Plus, I haven't even been in this country until two weeks ago, when I met Seren and we bought our Hogwarts materials."

Hermionie was in shock. Something that was written in a book, false?! Her whole world was shattered. If those books were false, how could she ever trust _any_ book to be true? Slowly, she was beginning to panic. Feeling the turmoil in her soul, Halios turns towards her and tries to calm her down.

"Now, now, don't fret. Just because those books were filled with lies, doesn't mean every book is the same. You just have to stop taking everything you read at face value. If something that is written in a book can be verified from another source, then it's most likely true. If not, take it with a grain of salt until it can either be proven or dissproven. So don't worry to much, ok?"

Nodding, Hermionie was slowly calming down, when the compartment door opened yet again, and a blond kid entered, followed by two kids that looked like trolls. Halios and Seren recognized the blond kid. It was the same bigoted kid they had met in Madam Malkin's, Draco Malfoy was his name, if they remembered it correctly. The blond ponce looked around the compartment with a sneer plastered on his face.

"No wonder there was a smell here. The Longbottom squib and a mudblood" the boy remarked. "And no Potter... come, let's leave."

As the boy and his pet trolls left, they could hear him mutter about how he would find Potter and "show him the way of a true Wizard". They could only imagine it meaning something in lines with being a bigoted, snobbish racist. Hermionie had a confused look on her face as she looked at the other three, and noticed the looks on their faces. Neville looked down in shame, with a little bit of anger mixed in, Seren was staring at the door in anger, and Halios had a look of disgust on his face as he did the same.

"Um... what was that about? And why do I get a feeling something bad has happened?" Hermionie asked in confusion.

" _That_ was Draco Malfoy" Seren said, turning to Hermionie after giving the door one last dark look. "He is the son of Lucius Malfoy, a Death Eater who used his money and political powers to go free after the fall of Voldemort, and a really unpleasant person through-and-through. And yes, something bad did happen. He insulted both you and Neville, by calling you mudblood and Neville a squib."

Seeing that Hermionie didn't understand what she meant, Seren sighed and started to explain. "A squib is a person born into a wizarding family that has no magic. In many older wizarding families, a squib is seen as a disgrace and are often disowned and removed from the family after they are discovered. Calling a wizard a squib has sometimes led to blood feuds between families. And 'mudblood' is an insult used by some so-called 'Pureblood' wizards, when they speak about first generation wizards and witches. The term is similar to the muggle term 'nigger'."

Comprehension slowly dawned on Hermionie, and she started to sputter in indignation. "How _dare_ he!" she said.

"He dares," came the reply from Halios, "because he believes he is superior to everyone else."

You could clearly see the look of disgust on his face as he said that. "Such a mindset is the leading cause for war and the destruction of civilizations, no matter what world you are on..." He shook his head. "I can only hope people like him is a minority here."

An uncomfortable silence descended over the compartment, until Neville took out a deck of cards and asked if they would like to play some exploding snap. They continued to play and talk as the train travelled towards its destination, and soon the evening fell, and they had to get changed to their school robes. Neville left the compartment, but Halios stayed. When Hermionie told him he should leave so they could change, he just smiled and turned into his female form.

Laughing at Hermionies' shell-shocked expression, she took out her robes and began to change. Stifling a laugh, Seren nudged Hermionie to move her out of her shocked state. Shaking her head, but still staring at Halios, Hermionie slowly changed into her robes. Once they were done, they invited Neville back in. As he stepped inside the compartment, Neville suddenly froze as he saw the now female Halios.

Smiling to herself, Halios began explaining what she was, and how Daedras didn't have a fixed gender, many not having a gender at all. As she explained, they could feel the train slowing down, and soon, they reached the station in Hogsmeade. Gathering up their loose stuff, they exited the train.

 **There, a few more characters have been introduced, and we have almost reached Hogwarts. In the next chapter, they reach Hogwarts, the sorting and the first day at school. I will try to write a chapter a month, so the next chapter should be out in late February. Until then, enjoy.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – Here's Hogwarts**

Stepping of the train, Halios, Seren, Neville and Hermione looks around them at the mass of students on the platform. Suddenly they heard a voice.

"FIRST YEARS O'ER 'ERE! ALL FIRST YEARS, GATHER 'ROUND ME!"

Seeing a giant man with a lantern, they slowly makes their way over towards him. As they get closer, they see more first year students congregate around the man. Soon, the only ones left on the platform are the first years and the man.

Looking at the group in front of him, the giant man smiled. "Right, everyone 'ere? Good. I am Rubeus Hagrid, grounds-keeper and Keeper of the Keys of Hogwarts. Now, if you follow me, we'll be taking the traditional route all first year students take."

With that, Hagrid turns around and leads them down a path towards the lake. Following behind him was the students, most of them were stumbling slightly on the path, as the only light they had came from the moon and Hagrids lantern. Halios had cast a Nights Eye spell, giving her night vision, and were helping her three friends along, so that they wouldn't fall. After a while, Hagrid turned towards the first years. "In a moment, we'll be able to see Hogwarts on the other side of the lake, and I'll tell ye, it's a sight to see."

A few moments later, they turned left and came to a small pier, with several small boats docked next to it. Across the lake, they could see Hogwarts castle rise above the lake, its many illuminated windows reflecting on the still surface of the lake. The moon was sitting right behind the middle tower of Hogwarts, giving the entire scene a truly magical setting. The children were stunned to silence by the sight.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Hagrid says, smiling. "Now, get in the boats, no more than four in each, and be careful. While the giant Squid would most likely save you if you were to fall in, it still wouldn't be a pleasant experience."

Halios and Seren got into a boat together with Neville and Hermione, though Neville seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing. Once everyone had gotten a seat, Hagrid took a boat for his own and once he had made sure everyone was accounted for, he pulled out a pink umbrella, tapped the boat he was sitting in with it, and shouted; "Forward!"

The boats slowly moved forward, across the lake. As they got closer, they could see more details of Hogwarts. Sitting at the bow of the boat, Halios extended her senses across the lake, towards the castle. The closer they got, the stronger she could feel the magic that the place held. As she retracted her senses, she could feel something massive moving in the depth of the lake. Looking to the port side, she could see something break the surface of the lake for a brief moment.

Turning back towards the castle, she saw that they were close to a cliff, but as they got closer, Hagrid called out to them to 'watch their heads'. Not long after, they entered a cave with a pier and a flight of stairs leading up to the castle. As soon as they had all disembarked, Hagrid led them up the stairs. At the top were a large wooden gate, and an old woman.

"Here you go, Professor, the first years." Hagrid greeted the woman.

"Thank you, Hagrid." The woman said, giving the gathered children a stern look. "I am Professor McGonagall, deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration teacher and Head of the Gryffindor house. In a few moments, you all will be sorted into one of the four houses here at Hogwarts. These houses are; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and for as long as you are here at Hogwarts, the house you've been sorted into will be your family. Depending on your actions, your house will gain or loose points during the course of the year, and the house with the most points at the end of term will be awarded the House Trophy. Now, if you follow me..."

Turning around, Professor McGonagall led them through the doors into a giant entranceway. Addressing the gathered students, McGonagall told them to wait there while she made sure everything was ready for their sorting. As she left, whispers broke out as the students wondered what the sorting would be like. Some believed it would be a test of skills, others guessed that some sort of questionnaire would be used, and the ginger kid said something about battling a troll. Suddenly, someone gave up a terrified scream. Looking around, Halios saw a group of ghosts phase through a nearby wall, talking amongst themselves.

" ...live and let live, as they say. Peeves may be a bit disruptive, but he is still one of us, so..." a rotund ghost in monks robes said to another.

"My dear friar, be that as it may, the only ones Peeves listens to is the Headmaster and the Baron. We _need_ to do something about him!"

The fat ghost is about to answer when he notice the group of children beneath them. Turning towards them, he gives them a bright smile. "Oh, hello. Are you the new students? Welcome to Hogwarts. I hope to see you in Hufflepuff, it's my old house, you know?"

Laughing slightly at the shocked expressions he sees, he gives them a wave, and leaves the room. At that point, Professor McGonagall returns and tells them to follow her. She leads them into a great hall, where the students and staff are sitting at five tables, one for the staff and four for the houses.

In the middle, was a three-legged stool with an old hat lying on it. Once everyone had entered the hall, professor McGonagall told them to wait by the doors before she went up to the stool and the hat. As she reached it, the hat suddenly moved, and split in a way that made it look like it had a mouth. As every pair of eyes in the hall were fixed on it, it began to sing.

 _Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_  
 _But don't judge on what you see,_  
 _I'll eat myself if you can find_  
 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_  
 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_  
 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_  
 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_  
 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_  
 _So try me on and I will tell you_  
 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_  
 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_  
 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_  
 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_  
 _Where they are just and loyal,_  
 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_  
 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_  
 _if you've a ready mind,_  
 _Where those of wit and learning,_  
 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_  
 _You'll make your real friends,_  
 _Those cunning folks use any means_  
 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_  
 _And don't get in a flap!_  
 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_  
 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!_

At the end of the song, the hat did a small bow, and the hall burst out in applauds. Clearing her throat, professor McGonagall pulled out a parchment and addressed the first years.

"Now we come to the sorting. As I read your name, please come up and put on the Sorting Hat." Rolling up the parchment, she began to call out names. First amongst the four new friends to be called was Seren. She went up to the stool, and sat down on it with the Hat on her head. After about one minute, the Hat called out "Ravenclaw!". Taking of the Hat, Seren left it on the tool and went over to the Ravenclaw table, whose students greeted her with applauds. Next up was Hermione. It took the hat about five minutes to announce her house, and to the surprise to Halios, Seren and Neville, who thought she would be in Ravenclaw, the hat placed her in Hufflepuff.

When it became Neville's turn, the Hat placed him in Hufflepuff too, and in his hurry to get over there, he almost forgot to remove the Hat from his head. After a while, it finally became Halios turn. Stepping forward, she walked up to the stool and took the Hat before sitting down and putting it on.

" _Hmmm... well this was interesting... you are not human, are you?"_ A voice said in her head.

Smiling to herself, Halios answered. _"No, I'm as close to a god you can come in this realm. And you must be the soul of the Hat I'm wearing, are you not?"_

" _A god, you say? Interesting... And yes, I am the Sorting Hat. Now, if you don't mind, I have to ask you... What do you mean by 'god'?"_

" _I'm a Daedra, one of the Princes of Oblivion, the space between worlds. Most Daedra are bound to a single world, but a few can move freely between worlds due to the nature of their divinity. One of those is my Father, Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness and all that is unknown."_

" _If that is so, then why are you here?"_

" _I was born in this world. Before I became Daedra, my name was Harry Potter. My father saw the attack on the Potter family, and was beseeched by my mortal mother to save me. He did, and took me with him to his own realm. Not long after that, magic turned me into a Daedra. My mortal godfather, Sirius Black never stopped searching for me, and a few months ago, he and the Headmaster summoned my mother Meridia, the Daedric Prince of Life, and Lady of Infinite Energies, and proceeded with inviting me here."_

" _Well, well... Thank you for the information. Now, normally, I would look through your memories to determine which house you belong to, but as you aren't a human, I can't do that. So I have to ask you, which house would you like to be in?"_

After thinking for a short while, Halios answered. _"Put me in Ravenclaw. One of my friends were put there, while the other two were put in Hufflepuff, so that way none of us has to be alone."_

Halios could almost feel the Hat smile at that. _"Loyalty fit for a Hufflepuff, and intelligence and logic befitting a Ravenclaw. As you wish. You are hereby placed in..."_ "RAVENCLAW" The Hat shouted so that everyone could hear. Taking of the Hat, Halios stood up, and after placing the hat back down on the stool, she walked over to the Ravenclaw table and sat down next to Seren.

Once the last student had been sorted, and the stool and Hat had been taken away, the Headmaster stood up and addressed the students.

"Now that everyone has been sorted, it's time to eat. But before that I only has a few things to say. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

And with that he sat down and the tables was filled with all kinds of food. Halios took something of almost everything she could reach, and chatted happily with Seren while they ate. After the main meal, the dessert came, and Halios tried a bit of everything, but nothing really stood out as a favourite. Once the last of the food had disappeared, Dumbledore stood up once again and spoke.

"Now that we have been fed and watered, I have a few things to say before letting you go. First, the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden, and no student is allowed inside unless they are with a teacher. Secondly, another ten items have been added to the list of items that are forbidden inside of the school. Most of those items are products of Zonko's line of products, and if anyone is interested in the full list, it can be found outside of Mr. Filch office. And lastly, this year the corridor on the third floor is closed to everyone who doesn't wish to die a horrible death."

At that, the entire hall just stared at Dumbledore as if he was crazy. But the Headmaster just smile and told them to follow their house prefects to their respective common-rooms, and that he wished them a good night.

Seren and Halios followed the rest of the Ravenclaw students through the halls of Hogwarts, until they came to a door. The door had no handle or keyhole, but a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle in the middle of the door. One of the prefects turned towards the students. "This is the entrance to the Ravenclaw Tower. To enter, you'll have to use the knocker, which will then ask you a riddle. Unless you can answer the riddle, you'll have to wait outside until someone comes who can."

The prefect then used the knocker, which gave him a riddle.

 _ _If it's information you seek, come and see me.  
If it's pairs of letters you need, I have consecutively three.__

 _Who am I?_

Turning to the students he asked; "Anyone who wants to take a guess?" After a few moments, Seren spoke up; "A Bookkeeper?"

The knocker nodded and the door opened. The prefect praised Seren, and then ushered them inside. Once everyone was inside, the door closed. Looking around, Halios thought the room looked like a library, but more homely.

The female prefect smiled at them all. "Welcome, to the Ravenclaw common-room. These bookshelves contains a collection of books given to us by former students, and has been charmed so that you can't remove any book that is beyond your current level of education. Now, the dorms are set up so that there will be two students in each room, so pick someone you can stand, as you will be living together for the next seven years."

Halios immediately went over to Seren. "Would you mind sharing a room with me? I can stay in my female form if you want me too."

Seren turned to her. "Sure, since we already know each other, it won't be a problem."

Halios smiled at her. "Thanks... It's good to have a friend."

Their conversation was interrupted by the female prefect. "Has everyone got a room-mate? Good. Now, the boys dorm is up the stairs to the right, and the girls is up the left stairs. And don't worry, the stairs are charmed so that no-one belonging to the opposite gender can ascend either staircase."

Looking at each other, Seren and Halios went up the left stairs and soon found the room they would be sharing. Their belongings were already there, and after they had changed into their nightclothes and taken care of their nightly concerns, they said goodnight to each other and went to sleep.

* * *

 **It took some time, but the chapter is finally finished. Now, as for why I placed Hermione and Neville in Hufflepuff, it's simple. Hermione has never had friends before, so now that she has, I think she would do anything to not loose them (at least, that's what I would do), making her more fit for Hufflepuff than Gryffindor. The same can be said about Neville, as he is more loyal than brave.**

 **I can't say for certain when the next chapter will be out, as I have other things on my mind, but rest assured, this story will NOT be abandoned.**

 **Until next time.**


	8. Chapter 7

**First, I want to apologize for the delay. I haven't been able to write for a while, as my grandmother recently passed away. Next, I want to tell you all a little about the future of this story. Book one and two will be easy to write, as I can use the original story as a base, the same goes for book four, but book three, five, six and seven will take some time, as I will have to re-create the story from scratch to fit the rest. Therefore, don't be surprised if some chapters take a while to write, but don't worry; I have no plans on abandoning this story.**

 **A cat, a bat and a Goblin**

It was around seven in the morning when Halios and Seren woke up that day. After greeting each other, they both went about and got ready for their first day in school. Once they were dressed, they left the Ravenclaw tower and went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast. It took some time, since they first got lost, and when they thought they had found the way, they were waylaid by a ghost doing pranks. It took them almost 20 minutes to reach the Great Hall, after having to ask some of the paintings for directions. Walking into the hall, they looked around and soon spotted both Hermione and Neville, who was sitting together close to the Ravenclaw table. Making their way over, they sat down as close to their friends as they could.

After they had sat down, Seren turned to Hermione and Neville. "Good morning, did you two sleep well?"

Both Neville and Hermione turned towards Seren and Halios. "Oh, good morning. Yeah, it was really nice. How about you two?"

"It was nice, and we were lucky enough to be able to share a room." Halios answered. They continued to chat while they ate, and soon their respective heads of houses came and gave them their schedules.

"Let's see... History of magic before lunch, and double Transfiguration together with the Hufflepuff first years after. And tomorrow... Charms and Herbology, also with you guys from Hufflepuff. Hmm... seems we have almost the same schedule, except for Astrology, which we have with Slytherin and you with the Gryffindors." Seren said. "Shall we finish here and go to class?"

The others agreed, soon they made their way to their first class. History of magic would have been really interesting, if it weren't for the fact that the professor, one Binns, could put an insomniac to sleep in less than ten minutes. After an hour, under which only Hermione and Halios could stay awake, Hermione due to training and Halios due to being a creature of magic, and thus not needing things such as sleep or food to survive (though she could sleep and eat if she wanted to). Having an hour until lunch, they decided to explore for a bit before going to the library.

After spending almost 30 minutes trying to find the library, they finally found it and once inside, they asked the librarian, Madam Pince, for some books on the subject of history of magic. Spending the time left until lunch, they red and discussed what they had red of the topic. After returning the books, they went down to the Great Hall and had lunch. Spending the lunch talking and eating, once they were done, they made their way to the Transfiguration classroom.

They were amongst the first to get there, and when they entered, they saw a cat sitting on the teachers desk. While Hermione, Neville and Seren took a seat in the front of the classroom, Halios went up to the cat and scratched it behind its ears, making it purr, before sitting down next to her friends. Soon, everyone was there, and they started to look around for the teacher.

"Umm... Do you think the teacher is late?" Hermione said, turning towards Neville. It was at that moment, that the cat jumped of the desk and turned into the professor that had taken over from Hagrid when they had been sorted.

"Five points to Ravenclaw for showing kindness towards an animal, Miss Sheoth. Now, I am Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts, and I'll be teaching you the art of transfiguration these next few years. The art of transfiguration is a hard one, and as students you will learn how to transfigure one inanimate object to another, to a live object or a living creature into an object." With that, she transformed her desk into a pig and back. She continued to explain the possible ramifications of failing certain types of transfigurations, and what she were expecting of them in class. She then gave them their first task, namely to turn a match-stick into a needle.

The class progressed smoothly, and in the end, they had all succeeded turning the match-stick into a needle, with Hermione being the first, followed by Seren, Halios and then Neville, who, while he had some problems, were able to succeed due to the help the other three gave him. After giving Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff points for finishing the transfiguration and then helping Neville, Professor McGonagall told those who hadn't finished to continue practice until the next lesson, and the others to read the next chapter in the transfiguration book, and then she let them go.

After leaving their books in their respective dorms, the four friends spent the time until dinner exploring the castle. Once they had had dinner, they wished each other a good night and returned to their common rooms. Seren and Halios spent the rest of the evening chatting and reading in the Ravenclaw common room, before going to bed.

The next day began well. After their morning rituals, Seren and Halios went down to eat breakfast and spent the meal chatting with Neville and Hermione. Afterwards they went out to the greenhouses and waited for the professor that would teach them Herbology. Soon, they were let in into the greenhouse, where the professor introduced herself as Professor Sprout. Spending the next hour or so listening to her describing different magical plants, they soon found out that Neville excelled when it came to plants, and he was able to earn almost fifty points for Hufflepuff that lesson. Leaving the greenhouse, they went and had lunch, before going to the Charms lesson.

In Charms, they sat down together again, while the professor made a roll-call. He then presented himself as Professor Flitwick, the charms professor and the Head of House for Ravenclaw. He then went on to describe what Charms was and what they would be learning during the year.

"Now, the first spell we are going to learn is _Wingardium Leviosa_ , the levitation charm," he began. "You will all be given a feather to practise on. To begin, make sure you know how to pronounce the words correctly, otherwise the spell might do something completely different than it was supposed to. Next part is wand movement. For this spell, the wand movement is a swish and a flick. As you begin to say the spell, swish your wand horizontally, and then flick it gently towards the object you wish the spell to hit. Make sure your wand continues to point at the feather as you finish wording the spell. Now, begin."

They spent the rest of the class practising the spell. While both Halios and Neville had some problems, they both succeeded towards the end of the lesson, thanks to Seren and Hermione. After dinner, they went to the library to study a bit, before going back to their respective common rooms before curfew.

The next day, Halios dressed in the boys uniform and changed to her male form on the way down to breakfast. He got a lot of curious stares that morning. After breakfast they had Defence Against the Dark Arts, but that class was a waste of time, according to Halios. The teacher, one Professor Quirrell, had such a bad stutter, that they could barely make out one word in three, and Halios could feel a strange darkness emanating from the professor. Deciding to study the DADA on their own time, the four friends went down to lunch. After lunch, it was time for their first lesson in potions, so they made their way down to the dungeons, where the classroom was. Entering the classroom, they noticed that the benches where organized in pairs, so Halios sat down with Hermione and Seren and Neville sat together behind them. As the rest of the students started to enter, they began looking for the teacher. Soon, everyone was seated, and the teacher had yet to arrive.

Suddenly, a man entered the classroom, his robe billowing around him like the wings of a bat. As he came to a stop in front of the class, he turned towards them and gave them a piercing glare, as if to judge them.

"Put your wands away, there will be no wand usage in my class." he began. "I am Professor Snape, the Potion Master here in the castle, and if you are not the kind of dunderheads I usually teach, you may actually learn something. In my class, you will learn how to brew potions of all kinds, potions that heal, poisons that hurt, elixirs of luck and love, but that is only _if_ you have some skill. Now, I will call your names, and I want you to answer loud and clear, got it?"

He proceeded to call their names. Once he was done, he asked a few questions to gauge how much knowledge they had about the subject, before getting them started on a Cure Burn potion. After writing the instructions on the black board, he spent the rest of the lesson stalking the classroom, looking for faults. Halios and Hermione managed without any problems, but it was only the watchful eyes of Seren that spared Neville and the rest of the class some nasty burns, as she was able to stop Neville from making a mistake that would have blown the potion they were working on up. Once the lesson had ended, they had only lost 20 points each, and they made their way to dinner.

The rest of the week proceeded well, and once the weekend came, they spent their time either in the library or the grounds around Hogwarts. After telling Hermione and Neville a bit more about himself, Halios began describing the magic system he was used to from home. There was several schools of magic, he told them. Not in the way Hogwarts was a school, but rather that each school had a distinct type of spells attached to it. These schools was:

Illusion: The art of controlling the minds of others. The spells in this school can be used to change the perception of people and creatures around the caster, such as stopping them from attacking, or making them flee in terror. A master of this school can even turn himself invisible.

Alteration: Alteration is used to change the reality around the caster. A practitioner of the Alteration school can breath under water, open locks or make his skin as tough as armour. They can detect life, transmute iron to silver and silver to gold and can paralyse others with a touch.

Destruction: The destruction school allows its practitioners to bend the elements to their will. They can throw fire, ice and lightning at their enemies, and a master in this school can summon storms of fire and ice, and channel lightning so strong, it can kill a dragon in less than a minute.

Conjuration: The most common use of conjuration is to create weapons and armour of pure magic. It can also be used to summon creatures from Oblivion, or reanimate the dead, though those uses are looked down on, and in some cases illegal.

Restoration: Restoration is the school of healing. Its practitioners can heal wounds, and cure diseases and poisons. They can also shield themselves and others from harm, and cause undead creatures to flee.

Enchanting: Enchanting is used to inscribe items with magical properties. It could be to give a weapon an elemental effect on a hit, strengthen armour to withstand magical attacks or putting an enchantment on a necklace to give its wearer the ability to breath under water.

Alchemy: Similar to potions in this world, alchemy is used to create potions poisons and elixirs of different types.

After explaining his magic, Halios answered any questions his friends had to the best of his ability. He demonstrated a few of the schools with a few spells. He levitated a rock with the help of the Alteration school, he summoned a dagger with the skills he had in conjuration, and he healed the wound Hermione got when she touched the dagger he had summoned, not believing it was real at first, with a spell from the Restoration school.

Soon, it was evening, and after dinner he changed back into his female for, so that he could enter the girls part of the dorm without any problems. After saying goodnight to each other, Seren and Halios went to sleep, their first week in school, done.

 **There, a new chapter. A bit shorter than usual, but a chapter none the less. I hope you all like it.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Here is the next chapter. I hope you all will enjoy it. Sorry for taking such a time with it, but a death in the family makes it kinda hard to concentrate on the creative parts of once life.**

 **Chapter 8 – Of Brooms and Trolls**

The next week went well for Halios, Seren, Neville and Hermione. They were usually the ones who cleared the lessons first, and you could soon see what each of them was good in. Neville was excellent when it came to plants and herbology, while Seren was a wiz at charms. Hermione was a master when it came to research, and helped the other three with their homework, but both Neville and Seren helped her to get a better understanding of the laws and traditions of the Wizarding World. Halios on the other hand, was in he middle when it came to knowledge and spell use, but she was far beyond any student when it came to the ability to manipulate the strength of the spells they had been taught.

Most of the time Halios stayed in her female form, except during potion and DADA. To them she went as a male, as she felt something dark from the DADA professor, Quirrell, and the times Professor Snape had seen her in female form, she had felt a shiver go down her spine, as he had let his eyes roam over her form, with a slight sinister glint in them. Whenever that happened, she felt dirty afterwards.

The next week, it was time for the flying class, and all first-year students were to be in the same class. The day of the flying class, Neville got a package from his grandmother. In it was a glass ball, filled with smoke. Neville explained that it as a Rememberall, and that when the smoke inside turned red, you had forgotten something. The problem was, he could never remember what he had forgotten. Unfortunately, two other persons saw what he got and started bully him for it. From the House of Slytherin there was one Draco Malfoy, the bigot they had met back on the Hogwarts express. He came to them and called them 'mudbloods' and 'blood-traitors', claiming superiority due to his family. The other one was from Gryffindor, and his name was Ronald Weasley. While not looking down on first-generation magicals or those who befriended them, he was just as bigoted as Draco Malfoy. He believed that everyone not sorted into Gryffindor were stupid, and that everyone sorted into Slytherin was evil. The only good thing with Ronald Weasley was his two older brothers, the Twins. They usually reined him in, and made sure he apologized when he had begun ranting.

They introduced themselves as pranksters extraordinaire, and once they found out that Serens' father was part of the Marauders (whom they idolized), they started to help the group, and include them in some of the pranks they played.

After lunch, all the first-years went down to the Quidditch pitch for their flying lesson. As they gathered on the Quidditch pitch, you could hear the students talking about flying. Most, spoke of how they were excited to be able to fly, while some, namely one red-headed Gryffindor and one snobbish Slytherin, bragged about their achievements on a broom, becoming more and more preposterous the more they spoke. Seren, on the other hand, spent her time guiding Hermione and Neville in how to stay safe on a broom. Soon, the flying instructor arrived. She introduced herself as Rolanda Hooch, and told them to follow her to the other side of the pitch, where she had laid out the brooms they would be using.

She told them to stand next to the brooms, hold their right hand over it, and order it 'up'. They did as she told them, with mixed results. Serens' broom went straight to her hand, as if fired from a canon, while Halios' rose with a sort of dignity. Nevilles' broom slowly rose, as did Hermiones', but others weren't so successful. Most brooms just rolled around on the ground, but some acted strange. One circled its student as a dog would, and another brushed up to its student like a cat. And the broom used by the Weasley reared up and smacked him in the face, to the amusement of the Slytherins.

Once everyone had a broom in their hand, Madam Hooch instructed them on how to mount the broom and hold it correctly. She then told them mount up, and wait for her signal before taking off. Soon, everyone was flying, some higher and faster than others. Seren, having flown before, spent her time guiding Hermione and Neville, as they flew slowly a few feet over the ground. Halios also took it slow, albeit due to different circumstances. While she had never flown on a broom before, she had flown using her own powers. She idly wondered if she could do the same outside her realm and decided to try it out another time.

As the lesson went on, some of the students became more and more daring. It ended with a mid-air collision between the Weasley and Malfoy, causing both of them to crash into the ground. Rushing over, Madam Hooch looked them over. They had a few broken bones, but nothing life-threatening. Dismissing the rest of the class, she took the two injured to the hospital wing to get fixed up. After leaving their brooms at the designated place, Halios, Neville, Seren and Hermione went down to the lake, since they didn't have any more classes that day, and they wanted to ask Halios some more questions about how the magic she used worked. They spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner learning about the magic used amongst the Oblivion planes and Mundus. Halios also explained the concept of Daedra and Aedra, and some of the different aspects they represented. Like how her father, Sheogorath, was madness incarnate, and her mother, Meridia, represented Life and Magic.

This shocked Neville and Hermione, since they just thought that Halios was a metamorphmagus, a rare ability, true, but still human. Not some godlike being that could travel to different planes of existence. They were a bit weary for a few days, but soon things returned to normal.

The weeks slowly went on, and soon they came upon the time of year known as Halloween. Halios, having never experienced Halloween before, asked numerous questions to both Seren and Hermione. Seren gave her a good insight on how the magical population celebrated Halloween, both due to the traditional part that was Samhain, and the new part that was the defeat of Voldemort ten years prior. Hermione, on the other hand, told her how the non-magicals celebrated (though her version didn't have the amount of sugar that others had, due to her parents being dentists), and that the tradition that was 'trick-or-treat' were annoying the hell out of her parents every year. The only good thing was that their dentistry did get more customers over the next few months, due to the high amount of sugar being consumed by both the kids and the adults.

As dawn broke on Thursday, October 31st, the weather was clear, and the first frost of the year lay on the ground. As the day went on, the different professors could be seen decorating the castle. Professor McGonagall had transfigured leafs into bats that flew around the great hall, and Hagrid, the grounds-keeper, could be seen moving giant pumpkins from his patch into the castle, where they were charmed by professor Flitwick to sing haunting songs whenever a group of students passed.

After the last lesson that day, Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren were making their way down to the great hall for the Halloween feast. Hermione, having been feeling a bit under the weather that day, told her friends that she had to use the bathroom, and that they could go down to the hall without her, but she would join them as soon as she felt okay again. Wishing her a speedy recovery, the three of them went down to the hall and sat down, waiting for the feast to begin and Hermione to join them. About 45 minutes later, the feast had begun, but Hermione had still not joined them. That was when the doors to the great hall was slammed open, and professor Quirrell ran in, looking scared to death.

He started to shout; "Troll! Troll, in the basement!", drawing all attention. Stopping in front of the teachers' table, he pressed out; "I thought you all should know.", before fainting on the spot.

This led to chaos amongst the students. Almost all of the students were in full panic mode, when a loud bang was heard from the direction of the teachers' table. As everyone looked over there, they could see Dumbledore standing up, wand in hand.

"Everyone, calm down. Prefects, could you please take the students back to their dorms, while we teachers take care of this troll."

As the prefects rounded everyone up, Seren realized that Hermione was still in the bathroom, not knowing about the troll. She made Halios and Neville aware of this, and the three of them left the great hall, making their way towards the bathroom Hermione had entered. As they got closer to the bathroom, they started to smell a foul odour. Turning the last corner, they entered the hallway the bathroom was located in. Unfortunately, in the other end of the hallway, they could see the troll approaching.

Taking in the scene in front of her, Halios turns towards Seren and Neville.

"I believe I can stop the troll for some time. How long, I do not know exactly, but a few minutes at least. Seren, while I stop the troll, could you enter the bathroom and take Hermione and get away?"

Seren nods and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself.

"Neville." Neville looks at Halios. "Neville, can you run back to the great hall and gather some of the teachers and come back here?"

Neville looked like he was about to be sick, but he slowly nodded and started to back away, as to not alert the troll. Once he had moved beyond the corner, they could hear how his footsteps increased in pace. Asking Seren if she was ready, Halios started to move towards the troll as soon as Seren had nodded. Moving past the bathroom door, she began charge up a paralyse spell, which she let fly once she was ten feet from the troll. The spell connected, and the troll slowed down, but didn't become paralysed due to its inherent magic resistance.

Halios continued to fling paralytic spells at the troll, whilst slowly walking backwards. As she came up alongside the bathroom door, the spells finally worked and the troll froze mid-step. Relaxing a bit as the spells now worked, Halios now heard movement from inside the bathroom. Turning towards the door while throwing a spell at the troll every twenty seconds (to keep it paralysed), she saw Seren and Hermione exiting the bathroom. They both looked scared, and Hermione paled when she saw the troll, the only thing keeping her from screaming was the presence of Seren and Halios. Keeping their eyes on the troll, they slowly made their way away from the bathroom.

When they came to the end of the hallway, they were met by Neville, leading a group of professors consisting of professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape. The professors immediately took out their wands and made sure to secure the troll. Once it was done, Dumbledore turned to the four students and asked what they were doing there.

"Well, professor" Seren began. "After our last class today, Hermione didn't feel all to well, so she told us she had to go to the bathroom, and that we should continue down to the feast and she would join us once she felt better. But professor Quirrell came running in before she came down, so we though we should go get her, since she didn't know about the troll."

Dumbledore nodded, and asked; "What happened here, the?"

Halios took over telling what had happened. "When we got here, we saw the troll in the other end of the hallway, and since the bathroom was about halfway between us and the troll, I asked Seren to make sure Hermione was all right, and to make sure she could leave the bathroom. Then I asked Neville to run back and get you, or any professor for that matter, while I tried to stop the troll."

At that, Dumbledore frowned and chastised her for taking such a risk.

"Um, well you see, professor. I was quite sure I could stop the troll, and even if I couldn't, if worst came to worst, I would still have been able to distract it long enough for Seren and Hermione to get away."

"But what if you had been injured or killed?" Dumbledore asked.

"An injury can be healed, and even _if_ my physical body had been killed, my essence would just have returned to the heart of my realm, where I would have been reborn after some time."

This statement shocked all of them. They knew Halios wasn't just a human, but to be, in essence, immortal? They had not been expecting that. Since they all were focused on Halios, no-one saw the brief glint of malice in Quirrells eyes, when he heard she was immortal. Gathering his thoughts, Dumbledore quickly took control once again.

"Well, since there was no injuries, and you were able to both save your friend _and_ stop the troll, I think a reward is in order. Let's see... Ah, thirty points to each of you, for bravery and inter-house friendship. Now, please return to you common-rooms. Food has been sent there, and the feast can be continued."

They gave the professors a small bow, and turned around to leave when professor McGonagall stopped them.

"Miss Granger, they said you didn't feel very good earlier, do feel better now, or do you have to visit the hospital wing?"

Blushing, Hermione answered; "No, professor. It was just that which happens to all females once a month after they have reached a certain point."

Professor McGonagall nodded. "I see. Well, I'll inform Pomona, and make sure you have the items you'll need to take care of it being placed in your trunk by one of the house-elfs."

"Thank you, professor." And with that, they left. Hermione and Neville towards the Hufflepuff common-room, and Seren and Halios towards the Ravenclaw tower.

 **Well, now that this chapter is done, the next one should be up in late July or early August, and will contain what happens in Hogwarts during Christmas. Have fun.**

 **\- Baleygr**


	10. Chapter 9

**Greetings all. I've come to a decision on how to handle Halios changes from male to female. When working purely with magic, she will be in her female form, but when a more physical approach is needed, such as during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he will be in his male form. I will also include other students into Halios group of friends as the years go by, at least one from each house. That being said, the rating of the story will most likely increase, as once they have reached the appropriate age, there will be some nudity and coarse language. But that will not happen before book five. Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter.**

 **A Strange Christmas**

The weeks went on, and soon the incident with the troll was forgotten by the majority of the Hogwarts students. The only ones who still remembered it was Halios, Seren, Neville and Hermione, whose friendship had become even closer due to the incident, Professor Dumbledore, who was trying to figure out what type of plan needed a rampant troll, and Professor Quirrell, who had set the troll loose in the first place, and was now cursing its failure.

Soon, December came, and the grounds were covered in snow. The four friends would often join the Weasley twins in snowball fights, which soon escalated into full three-way wars between the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses (well, that was until the Slytherins came out of Hogwarts castle, then it became a three-on-one war instead.). Towards the middle of December, the staff of Hogwarts started with the Christmas decorations, which confused Halios a bit. So, during one of the groups study sessions, she asked what was going on.

"Um, I've been noticing these decoration appearing all around the castle these last few days. Why is that?"

Seren answered her without really thinking about it. "Oh, it's just the Christmas decoration."

"What is Christmas?" Halios asked with a blank face. This caused the others to stop their work and turn towards her. It was Hermione who gave her an answer.

"That's right, you don't know about Christmas due to where you have been living." Hermione, turned to her lecturing mode. "Christmas is an holiday taking place around the 25th of December each year, and is an amalgamation of two older celebrations, namely the Roman celebration of Saturnalia (17-23rd of December) and the old Druidic celebration of Winter Solstice (19th to 24th of December, depending on year). The Christian faith took over said celebrations in order to celebrate the birth of their saviour, Jesus. Christmas is celebrated by spending time with your family, and by giving friends and family presents. Those belonging to the Christian faith also go to church and read from the bible during that time, but for most it's just a time to spend with your loved ones. Since most of the wizarding world belong to older faiths than Christianity, the only part of Christmas they celebrate are the decorations, the feast and the giving of gifts."

"Oookaayy... So, how will you celebrate Christmas?"

The three looked at each others. "Well... Neville and I will most likely return home to spend Christmas with our families..." Hermione began. "And my father has asked me to invite you to spend Christmas with us." Seren continued.

Halios blinked for a moment, then smiled. "I would love to. One thing first, thou. What is normal to give as Christmas gifts?"

"Usually, you give something that is useful, such as clothes, or books. Or if you don't know, candy or food." Neville said.

"Ohh, then I know exactly what to do!" Halios said with glee, before the group turned back to their work, chatting about what they thought of the year so far.

Slowly, the days moved on, and on the 21st of December, Halios and Seren gathered up their stuff and joined Neville and Hermione in the great hall for breakfast, before the four of them took a carriage down to Hogsmead to take the train back to London. The trip back went quick, as the four friends spent the time talking, laughing and playing games. Once they reached Kings Cross, Halios and Seren wished Hermione and Neville a merry Christmas, and told them that they would be waiting for them on the platform the day they were to return to Hogwarts. After waiving goodbye to their friends, Seren led Halios to her parents, who smiling hugged them both before apparating them and their luggage to the Black ancestral home.

After depositing their luggage in Serens room (they would be sharing room during Halios stay), they sat down for dinner and answered Sirius and Esteés questions about how the school had been. Sirius also informed Halios that so far, the Goblins hadn't found a way out of the marriage contract, but they were still looking, and as such, he had invited Nymphadora Tonks over sometime during the holiday so that they could meet. Halios informed Sirius that her mother were also looking into how to avoid the penalties for possibly breaking the marriage contract, but hadn't told her anything as of yet.

When they had eaten, they sat down in the lounge and Sirius entertained them by telling stories of his time in Hogwarts. But in the middle of a story, he suddenly stopped and got a look on his face that told them he had thought of something.

"Merlins balls, how could I forget..." Sirius looked at them. "I must contact Moony."

Turning to Halios, he explained: "Moony, or Remus Lupin, as his real name is, is another of my and James friends, and just like me, he has spent the time after Moldyshorts attack on your family looking for you. I don' know where he is right now, but I'll send him a letter tonight, telling him that I have news about you. That should make him come here as quickly as possible. If he hasn't reached us by the end of the holiday, I'll tell him you have been found, and that, hopefully, you can meet during the summer."

Nodding, Halios asked if there was something she should know about Remus before she met him.

"Yes. He is a werewolf, and while he isn't dangerous, the stigma attached to his affliction has caused him to age before his time and made him weary of other people, as he is scared he will transform and hurt them."

Halios perked up hearing this. "A werewolf, you say? Then I may know someone who can help him. You see, one of my 'uncles' is named Hircine, Lord of the Hunt, and basically the patron deity for all were-people in Mundus. He has an artefact that allows someone who has lycanthropy to control their transformation. I may be able to gain his approval, so that he can gift it to Remus in order to help him."

Sirius just stared at her, before silently asking her: "Really?"

"Yes," Halios nods. "But I can't promise Hircine will give the artefact up. So, it might be best not to mention it to Remus until I know I can help him."

Sirius became serious and nodded in agreement. He then looked at the clock and saw what time it was. After telling Seren and Halios that it was getting late, and that they should think about going to bed, he said goodnight to them and retreated to his study where he wrote a letter to Remus Lupin and sent it away.

The next few days were spent decorating the house and preparing for the Christmas feast. On the morning of the 25th, Halios was woken by an hyper Seren, who proceeded to drag her down into the lounge, where the Christmas tree stood, in order to open their gifts. From Hermione, Halios got a book on the culture in the wizarding world, and Seren got one about the muggle world. From Neville, they both got a necklace each, and a rose that, according to the letters they came with, would never wilt due to its magical properties. From Seren, Halios got a ring which was a part of a pair. Seren explained that it was a so-called friendship ring, and she had the other one. Furthermore, as long as they stayed friends, the ring would be golden, but if their friendship broke permanently, the rings would turn black.

When Seren opened her gift from Halios, she was greeted by three books and a statue. As she looked at Halios expectantly, Halios just smiled and told her what the gift was.

"I see you're wondering what I gave you, right?" Seren nods at this. "Well, the three books are spell-books. Each containing one beginner level spell from one of three schools of magic. The first book contains the spell 'Flames', a beginner level spell from the Destruction school. It's similar to 'Incedio' in that it produces a continues jet of flames from the hand you cast it with."

Halios smiles at the look on Serens face. "That's right, none of these spells require a wand to cast. Anyway, the second spell is the spell 'Healing', from the school of Restoration. This spell is an excellent first-aid spell, as it heals minor wounds immediately and slowly heals larger wounds the longer you use it. Anything below a sprained ankle is healed instantly, but anything larger than that will take time, though the spell can be used to stop bleeding if there is a risk for the person injured to bleed out. Now, the last spell is called 'Candlelight', and is from the Alteration school. Candlelight is simply Mundus version of Lumos, and creates a ball of light above the casters hand for up to a minute, before you have to cast it again."

After having explained the spells, Halios picked up the statue.

"Now this statue, it is actually a shrine connected to me" she said. "With it, you can contact me at any time, simply by sitting down in front of it and say 'Halios, hear my call'. No matter where I am, I will hear you and answer."

At this point, she was hugged by Seren, who was happy she now had a way to speak to her friend whenever she wanted. She then came to a realization.

"Halios, you have given the same things to Neville and Hermione, right?"

Halios smiled before she answered. "Correct, but I included a letter to each of them which explained what I just told you. Now, shall we go and play a prank on your father?"

An impish grin spread across both their faces as they left the lounge in order to prepare a prank. The days went by in a pleasantly pace, and on the 28th, Nymphadora Tonks arrived for a visit. At first, she was kinda sullen, not really enjoying the fact she was forced into a marriage contract, but once she learned they were working on finding some way to break said contract, she warmed up and hit it off with Halios, especially after she learned that Halios was a metamorphmagus, just like her. This led to them comparing their abilities. They found out that Tonks was better at creating completely new looks, but Halios ability to change 100% between male and female was something else all together.

Sure, Tonks could _look_ like a man, but she would still be fundamentally female, meaning she didn't have the equipment needed to impregnate anyone, and she would still have her period, no matter how she looked. Halios, on the other hand, change was 100% complete. As a female, she could become pregnant, and as a male, he could impregnate most women (if they wanted it, he would never force himself on anyone, neither bodily or mentally).

When Tonks left that evening, she, Halios and Seren had become close friends, and Halios gave her another small shrine statue, telling her how to use it to contact her. Leaving the Black-Weiss home, Tonks knew that whatever happened with the contract, at least she and Halios would be friends, if not more.

The rest of the holiday went by quickly, but on the last day before they were to return to Hogwarts, a letter arrived. It was from Remus Lupin. He said that he was bound by contract to stay in Japan until may, as he had been working there for the last three years, but that he would be returning to England as soon as he possible could. Sirius sent an owl back to him, saying that he was welcome whenever he liked, and that he could join them at Kings Cross once Hogwarts had ended for the year in order to meet 'Harry'.

The next day, Halios and Seren packed their stuff, and with Sirius and Esteé, apparated to platform 9 ¾.

 **So, the chapter is over for this time, and I must say, it didn't take as long as I thought it would to write it. Two more chapters until the end of book one, then one or two chapters for the summer, and the book two begins. Have a good time.**

 **\- Baleygr**


	11. Chapter 10

**I would like to thank everyone who has red this story. It currently has 62 696 views, 747 followers, 181 reviews and is part of 8 communities. That is far more than I could have ever hoped for when I began writing.**

* * *

 **Enter the Dragon, Norbert**

On the morning of January 3rd, Seren and Halios woke up early, in order to get to the Hogwarts Express in time to meet Neville and Hermione. At half past nine, they had eaten breakfast and were ready to leave. They apparated to the platform with the help of Sirius and Estée. Once there, they commandeered a compartment to use during the trip to Hogwarts, and after leaving their trunks there, they stepped off the train again to say goodbye to Sirius and Estée, and wait for their friends. A few minutes after ten, the Granger family entered the platform through the barrier, and not long after that, Neville arrived with his grandmother.

After having greeted their friends, the four magic students said goodbye to their respective families and boarded the train so that they could wait for the departure in peace. As they all sat down in the compartment, they began telling each other how their holiday had been. It didn't take long before Hermione asked about the books Halios had given them for Christmas.

"Oh, they are beginner level spell books from Nirn", Halios answered. "I though I could help you all study them this term, and then you can practise the spells during the summer."

"But, I thought we weren't allowed to do magic outside of school?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"We are not allowed to use our _wands_ to practise magic, but the spells from Nirn doesn't require a wand, or any type of focus to cast, and as such, can be practised when-ever and where-ever", Halios explained.

"Wait, does that mean I can show my parents magic?" Hermione asked excitedly. Halios just smiled and nodded. Hermione then squealed in delight and proceeded to hug Halios, before rapidly asking questions about the magic system on Nirn. Smiling, Halios answered the questions to the best of her ability, and it didn't take long before both Neville and Seren joined in with questions of their own.

And so did the trip continue, full of talk and laughter, and soon they began to close in on the station at Hogsmeade. Neville left the compartment to give the others some privacy so that they could get changed, and once they were done, they gave him the same courtesy.

After leaving the train, they followed the rest of the students towards the front end of the platform, where carriages stood waiting for them. As they came closer, they noticed that there was nothing drawing the carriages, but they just chalked it up to the carriages being propelled by magic, and left it at that. Settling in in a carriage, the four friends watched as they got closer and closer to Hogwarts. Soon, they passed through the gate, and the carriages came to a stop in front of the entrance to the castle itself.

Joining the rest of the returning students, they walked into the Great Hall, where dinner was about to be served. As they sat down at their respective houses tables, Dumbledore rose from his seat at the head table. Once everyone was seated, he welcomed everyone back and said that he hoped they had had a good holiday. He then told everyone to enjoy their food, and on that signal, the meal began.

They had sat down as close to each other as possible, even though they sat at two different tables. So during the meal, they continued to talk with each other. Two other first years from Hufflepuff joined in. They introduced themselves as Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. Susan was a red-headed girl who wanted to follow in her aunts footsteps. Her aunt was Madam Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, or DMLE for short, and since Susan had been raised by her after her parents died, she held her aunt in high esteem.

Hannah, on the other hand, was a blond girl, who came from a mixed family. Her father was minor lord of the Abbott House, while her mother was a muggleborn witch. She didn't have any plans for what she wanted to become when she grew up, but as she had an interest in plant, she hit it of quite well with Neville.

They spent the rest of the dinner happily talking to each other and enjoying themselves. Well, at least until Seren happened to look over towards the Gryffindor table, and saw the human garbage disposer known as Ron Weasley. The way he shovelled in food and swallowed without chewing made them all loose their appetite.

Once the dinner was over they said good night to their friends and went on their ways to their dorms in order to a good nights rest before the classes started the next day.

Time went on and things stayed the same, Snape was a jerk, McGonagall was strict, Flitwick was happy and Quirrell was useless. The only thing of note to happen was that the group, now containing Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott too, became friends with Rubeus Hagrid, the gentle giant of Hogwarts and the schools gamekeeper. This happened after they had met Hagrid during one of the groups forays outside the castle. After greeting him, they began talking, and when they said goodbye to him, they had promised to visit him for tea at a later date.

And visit they did. Soon, they were spending at least an evening every week visiting Hagrid. It didn't take long before they learned that Hagrid had a thing for strange animals and beasts. He currently had a Cerberus, which he had named Fluffy, and he dreamed about having a dragon. The weeks went on, and soon spring came. It was in the middle of March, when they discovered something during a visit to Hagrid.

As they entered Hagrids hut, they noticed the sweltering air inside.

"Hagrid," Seren asked. "Why do you have such heat in here?"

She looked around a bit. "And is that an egg in the fireplace?"

Hagrid looked a bit sheepish. "Ay, it is. I won 'im from a bloke down at the pub, an' I though I could raise 'im."

Hermione kept looking at the egg, as if she was trying to solve a puzzle.

"Hagrid," she said, turning towards him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a dragons egg?"

A smile crept up on Hagrids face. "Yep, an' I always wanted a dragon of me own, an' now I 'ave one!"

"Um, Hagrid?" Halios said. "I can already see a few problems with this."

"Problems? Wha' do ye mean, problems?"

"Well, first of all, dragons breath fire, right? And you live in a wooden hut, so the risk of a fire is bigger than normal. Secondly, do you even know what type of dragon it is? I mean, different types of dragons require different types of care, right? And lastly; it's kinda against the law to raise a dragon without having a licence for it, which would mean if someone were to find out about you having it, it could cause a lots of problems, not only for you, but for the school and Professor Dumbledore as well."

Hagrids mood fell the more Halios talked. Once Halios had finished, Hagrid sighed. "Yer right, of course."

Sitting down, he continued; "Wouldn't want to cause trouble fer Dumbledore, after everything he's done fer me." He gave another sigh. "But still, I've always wanted a dragon of me own..."

While Hagrid and Halios was talking, Hermione was thinking furiously.

"Hagrid, do you know how long it will be before the egg hatches?" she asked.

"More than a week, but no longer than two, I think."

"Do you know anyone who could possibly help you with this?"

Hagrid sat quiet for a while, thinking. "Well..." he began. "I think one o' the Weasleys work with dragons, but I don't know which..."

At this point, Neville spoke up. "Then we should ask the twins. I bet they can help us."

"Good idea, Neville." Seren said. "What do you think, Hagrid?"

"I think... that is the best thing to do." Hagrid said with a sad voice.

"Don' be too sad, Hagrid." Halios said, patting the giant mans arm. "You will most likely be able to see the egg hatch, and while you can't keep the dragon, you can take solace in that it will grow up together with others of its species."

"And," she continued. "I'll ask my father if we can get you a pet that isn't illegal to have, but is still one of a kind."

Hagrids mood improved after that, and soon they said their goodbyes and left to find the Weasley Twins.

* * *

It took them until dinner before they found the twins, but after that, they were able to speak to them. The twins confirmed that their older brother, Charlie, was a handler at a Dragon Reserve in Romania. They promised to contact him, and to do so in secret, as they too liked Hagrid.

The rest of the week passed mostly uneventful, except Halios noticing the darkness she felt coming from Professor Quirrell becoming more pronounced. She decided to have her familiar track him.

 _Flashback._

 _Halios entered the room were his Mother and Father sat and listened on their followers prayers._

" _Mother, Father..?"_

" _Yes, Halios?" Meridia said._

" _I have created a Familiar, and I would like to introduce it to both of you."_

" _Well then, son! Show us what you have." Sheogorath said with a loopsided grin._

 _Halios held out a hand, and a shadow left from beneath his cloth, sliding down his arm and gathering in his hand like a liquid._

" _Somehow, I have created a sentient shadow. I can see what it sees if I concentrate, communicate with it telepathically, and it can hide in other shadows without being found by any means." Halios smiled at his parents. "I will call it, Vonun*."_

 _Flashback end._

After telling Vonun to hide in the Professors robes, she used it to track him. What she learned wasn't very nice. Apparently, the dark wizard her Father had saved her from had survived as a wraith, and was now inhabiting the Professors head. Add to that a magical artefact that was hidden in the corridor on the third floor which had the power to return said dark wizard to a body of his own...

Well, her school year had just become a lot harder.

The next Wednesday, the twins returned with the answer from their brother. He, and a group of dragon handlers, could be at Hogwarts in three weeks and pick up either the egg or the newly hatched dragon. According to him, from the description of the egg they had sent, it was most likely a Norwegian Ridgeback. He also sent a potion that would put the dragon to sleep without harming it if the egg had hatched before they arrived. They just had to put if in together with the dragons food, and they would be set.

Together with the twins, they went down to Hagrids hut to give him the news. Once Hagrid learned that he would most likely be able to watch the egg hatch, he felt a bit better. And when he learned that the dragon inside the egg was most likely a Norwegian Ridgeback, he decided to call the dragon Norbert.

* * *

 **I'm sorry about this chapter being shorter than normal, but this was a good place to end on.**

 ***Vonun means Hidden, or unseen, in the Elder Scrolls dragon language.**

 **Next chapter will be the birth and farewell to Norbert, plus the trip into the Forbidden Forest. Until then.**

 **-Baleygr**


	12. Chapter 11

**Happy New Year!**

 **I would first like to apologize for the time it has taken for me to create this chapter. Apart from simply not having any inspiration when it comes to writing these last couple of months, I've also been busy with looking for jobs. Hopefully, I will be able to update more regularly this year.**

* * *

 **By light, be purged!**

Over the next couple of weeks, Halios, Seren, Neville and Hermione spent a lot of time at Hagrid's, helping him with the egg. It was two weeks later when the egg began to hatch.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, when the four friends were making their way down towards Hagrid's hut. He had not long ago sent a message to them, saying the egg was starting to hatch. Reaching the hut, they knocked on the door. Hagrid answered and ushered them inside, where the egg sat in the middle of the table, cracks spreading over its surface.

"Welcome, yer just in time. It shouldn't be long before he hatches, now." Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid", Halios answered. "We wouldn't want to miss this."

Stepping inside, they all gathered around the table, watching the egg. Slowly, the cracks grew, and they could see the dragon hatchling move inside. After about thirty minutes, a piece of the shell fell off, and the hatchling poked its head out, looking directly at Halios.

Not long after that, the hatchling had successfully crawled out of the egg, and was now sniffing the air inside the hut.

"Oh, ain't he a beauty" Hagrid gushed, reaching out to pet the dragon. The hatchling looked at Hagrid before burping out a burst of fire, setting Hagrids beard alight.

"Oh, feisty little bugger, eh?" Hagrid said with a smile, as he patted hid beard in order to put out the fire.

The rest of the group were all looking at the dragon hatchling, Neville with trepidation and Hermione and Seren with interest. But Halios had a strange look on her face when looking at the hatchling. Slowly, she reached out to touch the dragon. The hatchling noticed this, and were observing her movements in case she would try to hurt it. As Halios fingers touched the head of the dragon, a light formed around the hatchling. Quickly drawing her fingers back, Halios looked at the hatchling with a strange look on her face, while the light shone brighter for a few moments before going out.

Hermione was the first to speak. "What was that?"

"I... I don't know" Halios answered, a bit stunned. Meanwhile, the little dragon was acting a bit strange. It no-longer acted as an animal, but more like a very young person, which was noticed by those who were looking at it. Halios soon noticed it too, and after observing the hatchlings behaviour for a while, had an epiphany.

"I _think_ I know what has happened," Halios began. "On Nirn, there are Dragons, not the kind you have here on Earth, but Dragons non-the-less. These Dragons are highly intelligent, having their own language, and also being able to speak the tongues of mortals. They are known as the Children of Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, since it is said that the first dragon was born of Him. I _think_ what happened here was magic giving similar intelligence to this hatchling, but that was all it did, since no matter how magical a dragon of earth is, it is still only an animal, not a divine being, unlike the Dragons of Nirn."

The rest listened to Halios explanation in fascination, even the young dragon were paying attention to her.

"So what does that _mean_?" Hermione asked.

"I believe it means this young one will be able to learn how to speak as a human, doesn't it?" Seren said, turning slightly towards Halios in the end.

Halios nodded at that. "Yes, that is most likely, _IF_ I'm correct. Only time will tell."

Hagrid looked like Christmas had come early, and was beaming with joy. They spent another hour with Hagrid, before saying goodbye and returned to the castle.

Over the next week, they spent a lot of their free time at Hagrids hut, trying to teach the young dragon to speak. While they hadn't been able to make the hatchling speak, they could see that he (for apparently the young dragon was a male, at least they believed him to be since he had nodded when asked if he was a male) understood everything they were saying. All to soon, the day the dragon handlers would come arrived. Hagrid was of course sad, but he understood that the young dragon would like it better amongst its own kind. They had explained what would happen to the dragon (which had been named Norbert by Hagrid, for some reason), and about an hour before the dragon handlers planed arrival, they had fed the sleeping potion to Norbert, so that he would be asleep during the flight to Romania.

After saying goodbye to a sad Hagrid, they slowly made their way up to the top of the Astronomy Tower, where they would meet the handlers. Since it was close to curfew, they had to be careful as to not be detected. Reaching the top of the tower without any difficulties, they sat down and waited for the handlers to arrive. After about an hour, they could see some dark spots flying over the forest towards them. Soon, six persons stood with them on top of the tower. One of them stepped forward, and as he came closer, they could see his red hair.

"Hello, I'm Charlie Weasley. I take it you are the ones that had my brothers send me a message about a dragon?" he said.

Halios stepped forwards.

"Yes, that's us. I'm Halios Meridian Sheoth, and these are my friends," she said, introducing them as they stepped forward. "Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Seren Black-Weiss."

"Good to meet you all." Charlie said. "Now, I take it you have the dragon ready for transport?"

"Of course." said Seren, pointing towards a cage, in which Norbert slept soundly. "Though we must warn you. Halios magic had a strange reaction to him, and he is now much more intelligent than a normal dragon. We believe he even might be able to learn human speech, if given enough time."

This statement chocked the handlers, and they began talk quietly amongst themselves. Charlie looked a bit shell-chocked before looking over towards the dragon with a look of contemplation on his face.

After a few more minutes of talk, the group made sure the cage that held Norbert was safely placed between their brooms, before saying goodbye and taking off. Watching the group disappear over the Forbidden Forest, the four friends began making their way towards their respective common rooms. That was when things fell apart.

As they came down from the tower, they ran into the caretaker, Mr. Filch. Since they were out after curfew, he took them to Professor McGonagall, who was not amused. After giving them a 20 points reduction, each, she informed them that they would be serving detention with Hagrid the following night. Once she had finished her lecture, she escorted them to their dorms. Once inside they quickly went to bed.

The next day after dinner, Mr. Filch led them down to Hagrids hut, going on and on about how the detentions were better in the past, giving anecdotes about how he used to string bad students up in the dungeons and whip them. He then went on about what kinds of creatures lived in the forest, and how they would love to devour any student who entered after dark.

It wasn't until they reached Hagrids hut, and Hagrid told him off, that he shut up. After sending Filch away, Hagrid turned to the four students.

"Right. As yer hav' been told, ye all will be helping me tonight. Something in the forest has been killin' Unicorns, so we're going to go in there and see if we can find any trace of what did it. We'll be splittin' into two groups, one with me, the other will be taking Fang. Now, who goes where?"

Halios and Seren looked at each other, before turning to Hagrid. "We'll take Fang" Seren said. Nodding, Hagrid gives her the leash, before picking up a crossbow. Turning to Hermione and Neville, he tells them to follow him. Seeing Hagrid, Hermione and Neville walk into the forest towards the lake, Halios and Seren takes Fang and moves in the opposite direction.

Slowly, they move deeper into the forest, keeping their eyes open and senses sharp, in order to spot anything out of place. After about thirty minutes of walk, they noticed some strange silvery substance on the ground. Following the trail of silver deeper into the woods, they came upon a clearing, where-in a Unicorn lay. It wasn't until they saw the silvery substance pool beneath the Unicorn that they realized, it was its blood. Something had been harming the Unicorn. Most likely the thing Hagrid had told them to find some trace of.

It was then Halios saw something moving towards the Unicorn from the trees on the other side of the clearing. Whatever it was, was crawling close to the ground, covered in what seemed like a large, black cloth. Slowly, it reached the Unicorn, before leaning over its side and pressing its face into the Unicorns wound.

At this point, Seren took an involuntary step backwards, and ended up stepping on a fallen branch that broke with a loud snap. The sound caused the creature to raise its head from the Unicorn, and look in their direction. Most of its face was covered by a hood, but they could see its mouth, with silvery blood dripping from its corner.

Slowly, the creature began moving towards them, and it was then Halios could feel the darkness and evil the creature possessed. Quickly, she began to pray.

"Oh Meridia, Lady of Light and Infinite Energies, hear thy child's prayer. Send thy Light down on the creature before me, so that it may cleanse it of all evil."

From the skies above, a powerful ray of light came down on the creature, trapping it. It let out a high-pitched scream, before a shadow left it, shooting away into the distance. Once the shadow had disappeared, the creature slowly turned to dust. Once nothing remained of the creature, the light slowly went away, and with a thanks to Meridia, Halios slowly moved towards the Unicorn.

"Halios, what are you doing?" Seren asked.

"I'm going to try to heal the Unicorn."

"You can do that?" Seren blinked.

"Perhaps, if its wounds aren't to severe."

Reaching the Unicorn, Halios looked at the wounds. They were large, but they didn't seem to have hit any major arteries. That meant that she could heal them, but she didn't know if the Unicorn would survive the blood-loss. But, a small chance was better than no chance, so Halios began healing the wounds.

While she was healing the Unicorn, Hagrid – having seen the light – came to the clearing, followed by Neville and Hermione. Once he saw the Unicorn, he asked Seren what had happened. She explained that they had found the injured Unicorn in the clearing, and had observed as some strange creature had entered the clearing in order to feed of the Unicorns blood. Shocked by that, she had accidentally stepped on a branch, which had attracted the attention of the creature. As it had made its way towards them, Halios had prayed to her Mother, which led to the light cleansing the creature, which had turned to dust. Halios was now healing the Unicorn, and that was when they had reached them.

Thanking Seren for the explanation, Hagrid moved towards Halios and the unicorn.

"Will he live?"

"Perhaps," Halios answered. "While I can heal the wounds, I can't do much about the blood-loss, so it's up to chance if he will have enough strength to live once I'm done."

A few minutes later, the wounds were healed, and they stepped back to give the Unicorn more room.

Slowly, on shaky legs he stood, before nudging Halios with his head and then move slowly into the woods.

"Well, that's all we can do, now." Hagrid said, before turning around. "Come, it's time to head back to Hogwarts."

Slowly, they made their way back to Hogwarts, and after saying goodnight to Hagrid, they all went back to their dorms to sleep. They had no idea what news awaited them the next morning.

* * *

 **And there you have it. Now, I'll be finishing the next chapter in my story 'Hollow Magic', and then I'll begin the next chapter here. Hopefully, it won't take too long. Until next time.**

 **\- Baleygr**


	13. Chapter 12

**Greetings. This story has of right now over 100k views, and over 1000 followers. Many who reviewed has begged for longer chapter, and I will try to deliver. Previous chapters are all in the range of 2000-2500 words, and I will from now on try to write chapters with at least 3500 words. While not planned, I will also include characters and items from the Nasuverse from now on, in an attempt to fix the mistake that was the marriage contract mentioned in chapter 4. Thank you all for enjoying this story.**

* * *

 **Getting Stoned on** **the Third Floor**

When they came down for breakfast the next morning, they noticed the teachers that sat at the head table all had a sombre look on their faces. Well, all except Snape who had his customary look of disgust and indifference plastered on his face. When all students had been seated, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the gathered students.

"Students of Hogwarts," he began. "It is with great regret that I must inform you that as of last night, Professor Quirrell is missing, and presumed dead."

After waiting for the murmurs from the students to quiet down, he continued.

"Late last night, the wards detected a massive surge of magic on the grounds, and right after that, Professor Quirrells presence disappeared. Therefore, all classes are cancelled for the rest of the week, while we teachers assist the Aurors in investigating Professor Quirrells disappearance. When the classes begins again next week, I will take over as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the year. Please assist the Aurors to the best of your abilities, and, most of all, stay calm."

With that, Dumbledore sat down and everyone started to eat. Halios and Seren shared a glance, as they now knew what it was that had attacked the Unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. Standing up, they went over and sat down next to Hermione and Neville. Hermione was the first one to break the silence.

"From the looks on your faces, I would say you know something about the Professors disappearance."

Both Seren and Halios nodded. "We think it was Quirrell who was responsible for the attacks on the Unicorns in the forest, since it fits with what happened last night. As Dumbledore said, the wards felt a massive surge of magic last night, and then the presence of Quirrell disappeared. At the same time, the cleansing light my mother sent in response to my prayer would have registered as a massive magic surge, and it did destroy the corporeal form of that which attacked the Unicorns."

Neville frowned. "So what will you do now?"

Halios shrugged her shoulders. "If they come asking, I will tell them the truth, but I will not search them out, as they might not believe me."

Hermione looked a bit miffed at that, for despite understanding Halios reasoning, she still believed that authority figures should be obeyed at all times. The breakfast continued with all the students talking about what had happened, rumours running rampart as they speculated on what could have happened. Some of the speculations were; a spell had backfired and killed him (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff), a dark wizard had killed him as an initiation rite (Gryffindor in general, but mostly Ron Weasley), magic had decided he was unfit for its gift and thus erased him (Slytherin) and a multitude of different theories, ranging from dragons to aliens, coming from a mixture of students of all ages and backgrounds.

After breakfast, Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren went down to the Black Lake so that they could talk undisturbed. Sitting down on some rocks at the shoreline, Neville turned to Halios and Seren and asked; "So, what happened last night?"

"Well," Halios began. "After we had split up, Seren and I went into the forest quite a bit. After a while, we saw something silvery on the forest floor. It was some kind of liquid. Following the silvery trail, we came to a clearing. In it, there lay a unicorn, badly wounded. The silvery thing we had seen, was its blood. As we stood there, I suddenly felt something dark and evil approach the clearing from another part of the forest. Not long after that, a dark figure entered the clearing. It looked kind of weird. It was going low, barely half my high, and was dressed in some sort of cloak, with shadows gathering around it, making it impossible to see any features. The thing approached the unicorn and began to drink its blood. It was at that time, it noticed us. As it slowly came towards us with ill intent clear, I prayed to my mother, who, by being the Deadric Prince of Light and Lady of Infinite Energies, seeks to destroy all things evil and the undead. It was she that sent the light you saw, and it was the light that destroyed the entity, which now we know was Quirrell. Unfortunately, it was only his physical body that was destroyed, the spirit possessing it was able to flee, but it will not return."

Both Neville and Hermione looked a bit shell-shocked after that bit of information, but felt better after learning that the evil part wouldn't return. Spending the rest of the morning at the lake, just enjoying the day, their discussions soon came to orbit around what could be on the third floor. Both Hermione and Neville were quiet happy not knowing what it was, but Halios and Seren felt a small desire to find out. They both decided to talk to the other one about perhaps exploring the third floor some time later.

When lunch came, they went inside to eat, and after that they went to the library so that they could study and finish their assigned homework. After dinner, they spent another hour in the library, this time only looking up interesting facts for fun. Soon, it became time to return to their common rooms, and get ready for the night. After saying goodnight to Seren, Halios went to sleep.

 _ **Dream**_

 _The first thing Halios noted, was the multi-coloured butterflies that fluttered around her. Then she noticed the presence of two beings she knew very well. Turning around, she gave them a bright smile._

" _Mother, Father, it is good to see you."_

 _Meridia smiled. "You as well, my dear child. Since you are probably wondering why we have called you to us in spirit, let us explain. Your father has been searching the realm you are in for something to break the contact you were forced into last year, and we believe we may have found something._

" _Oh, yes." Sheogorath began with a grin. "I found a priest in whom madness lurked. Said priest is on the other side of the planet, in a country called_ _Jalapeño. Wait, no… That's a fruit… Jpeg? No, no… Ah! Japan!"_

 _Despite knowing of the weird quirks the Mad God had, both Halios and Meridia gave him a strange look, before continuing._

" _Anyway. From the mind of that priest, we learned about another hidden world of magic users called mages. Said mages are rule by something called 'the Mage's Association', which apparently is an international_ _, self-preservative and self-defense organization formed by practitioners of magecraft for the purpose of controlling, concealing, and developing_ _Magecraft_ _. Magecraft is the name of the type of magic they practise. The Mage's Association is split into three groups; The Clock Tower, which is located in London, interestingly enough, and has the largest concentration of magical knowledge of all types in the world, Atlas Academy, which concentrate on alchemy and lies somewhere in the mountains of Egypt, and the Wandering Sea, a nomadic gathering of mages in the northern Europe, that tries to study the magic of the gods."_

" _Interesting…" Halios injects._

" _Yes, it is." Meridia nods at the statement. "Anyway. The difference between Mages and Wizards, is how they use magic. As you know, wizards and witches have a core that generates magic. Whether the core is physical or spiritual is not known, only that it exist. Mages, on the other hand, doesn't have a core. Instead, they absorb the energy of the world in order to perform their crafts. They also have something called circuits inside them that they use to move said energy around their body. Another difference is the way their magic works. Since wizards and witches uses their own energies in order to do magic, they are only limited by how much energy they can produce. Mages, since they use the worlds' energy, are bound by the laws of nature. For example, an average witch or wizard can create something with his or her magic that will last for days, maybe even weeks of months, before it disappears. Something created out of magic by an average mage will only exist as long as said mage is holding it, or maybe a minute or so afterwards, if the mage uses enough energy. This is caused by the world seeing the created thing as un-natural, and thus rejects it."_

 _Smiling at the look of interest on their childes face, Sheogorath interrupts Meridia. "Perhaps we should get to the point of why we called her here, yes?"_

" _Oh, of course." Meridia says with a small blush on her face. Turning back to Halios, she continues. "One thing the mages' are really good at, is the creation of magical items. These items become stronger the longer they exist, sometimes even becoming divine in nature. In fact, a few of these items are very similar to or own Daedric Artefacts in power. One of these items is a dagger called 'Rule Breaker'. Rule Breaker has the ability to destroy all types of magic its blade touches, including magical contracts."_

 _This causes Halios to become more alert. "Does this mean we can use Rule Breaker to cancel the marriage contract?" she asks._

 _Meridia shakes her head. "Unfortunately, Rule Breaker has been missing for almost a millennia, and many believes it has been destroyed. While we probably could find it, it would take longer than we have before the contract activates."_

 _Halios looks a bit sad at this._

" _Ah, but there is a way around that!" Sheogorath says with a huge grin on his face. "A Few hundred years ago, a group of mages from three families created an artefact known as the Holy Grail. They used this artefact to summon the spirits of seven heroes in order to create a ritual. This ritual was called the 'Heaven's Feel', and is in form of a tournament. Each of the heroic spirits, called Servants, is summoned by a mage, called a 'Master'. These seven pairs of Masters/Servants then battle it out in a city in Japan called Fuyuki, and the last pair standing is granted one wish each by the Grail. This happens every sixty years, and so far, there has been no winners."_

" _And that has to do with our problem, because..?" Halios asks, confused._

" _Ah, you see, the sprits that are summoned will keep their skills and items from when they were alive, and one of the spirits that can be summoned is the original owner of Rule Breaker." Meridia explains. "And the next ritual will take place in about three years. This gives us the opportunity to manipulate things so that you will be chosen as a master, and make it so you summon the spirit that has Rule Breaker. It will also give us more time to learn about these mages' and the things that exist in their magical world."_

" _Now, return to sleep, and know that once the school is over, we will meet with all those who are touched by the contract and tell them what we plan on doing."_

 _Giving her parents a hug, Halios lets her minds fall back into deep sleep._

 **The Waking World**

When she woke the next day, Halios had a smile on her face. After telling Seren about what she learned that night, they went down for breakfast. They spent the time before lunch just talking and having fun, except when an Auror who looked like a Redguard came and asked if they knew anything about what had happened to Professor Quirrell. Once they had told him what had happened that night, he thanked them and left. The rest of the day was spent with Halios teaching Seren, Neville and Hermione the basics of Nirn magic. Hermione and Neville was firmly in one school each, namely Alteration for Hermione and Restoration for Neville. Seren, though, was split between two schools, Destruction and Conjuration. Under the guidance of Halios, they made great progress in their chosen schools. Neville could now heal minor cuts and bruises, and even something like a sprained wrist or ankle. Hermione had great fun with the Candlelight spell, and was beginning to get a hang on the Oakflesh spell, though it could still only protect against minor things, such as insect bites, rather than the types of damage it was designed for.

Seren was cackling in glee as she was firing large cones of fire from her hands out over the lake, and from time to time, summoning and re-summoning a Conjured Dagger, just to get the hang of it. After having spent some time researching it, Halios had discovered the conjured knifes and daggers worked very well when it came to potion making. The edge of the blades were always sharp, and while the dagger/knife was a magic construct, it was passive. That meant that the magic of the knife/dagger didn't disrupt the inherent magic of the potion ingredients. Plus, the fact it was easy to dismiss and re-summon the blade between uses, made it so there was no need to clean the blade in order to avoid contaminations of the ingredients.

Soon, it was time for dinner, and as the evening progressed, Seren and Halios were getting ready to explore the corridor on the third floor. After saying good night to Neville and Hermione, they started to make their way towards the Ravenclaw tower. But once they were close to the forbidden corridor, they snuck away towards it. Once they got there, they found a locked door. Making sure no-one was close by, Seren used the spell Alohomora to open the door, and they quickly stepped in, closing the door behind them.

Turning around, they came face to face with three giant hound heads. Reacting on instinct, Halios immediately cast a Paralyze spell on the creature. After a few moments, when they were sure the spell had worked, they relaxed a bit and took a better look at the three-headed monster. They discovered that it was a Cerberus, a three-headed guard dog normally found in Greece. They remembered having red about Cerberuses during their free time in the library, and knew they could put the Cerberus to sleep with music. But, since neither of them could play any instruments, nor had the knowledge to use their magic to create music, Halios decided that an over-charged Sleep spell would have to do while they searched the room.

Once the Cerberus was asleep, they began searching the room, and they soon found a hatch in the floor. Once they had opened the hatch, they looked down, but all they could see was darkness. Looking up at each other, they started discussing what they should do to get down the hatch without injury. It was during this discussion that they noticed the breathing pattern of the Cerberus had changed. As they slowly looked over towards the door, they saw a now awake Cerberus that looked ready to attack. Since the Cerberus was now blocking the door, the only place they could go was down the hatch. Looking at each other, they quickly jumped down the hatch as the Cerberus started to move towards them.

After a few seconds of free-falling, Halios and Seren landed on something soft.

"Ouch… Are you okay?" Halios asked Seren.

"Yeah. Any idea of what we landed on?"

"No, but by the looks and the smell of it, it's some sort of plant."

It was then the plant started to move, its vines quickly binding the two and starting to strangle them.

"What..? It… It's attacking us!" Seren said with a tone of panic in her voice. "We need to get out of here!"

"It's a plant, use fire!" Halios instructed as the vines almost reached her neck. Together, they gathered their magic and unleashed bouts of flames towards the main body of the plant. The light and heat of the flames caused the plant to retreat, and it wasn't long before they were free. Quickly, they moved away from the plant, down a corridor towards a room. As they came closer to the room, they could hear the quiet fluttering of many wings. Walking into the well-lit room, they saw a door on the other side, three brooms next to it, and some type of small birds flying up near the ceiling. After a closer look, they noticed that the birds were in fact keys. Since they couldn't open the door, they could only assume that amongst the keys was the one which fit the doors' lock.

"Well, it seems we need to use the brooms and try to find the correct key, if we are to continue on." Seren said, reaching out for one of the brooms. Only to be stopped by Halios.

"Wait. It would take us ages to catch the right key, so let me try something else, first."

Halios then took out a pin of some kind, and a thin piece of metal, before kneeling down next to the door and starting to fiddle with the lock.

"What _are_ you doing?" Seren asked, confused.

"Well…" Halios began. "My father has been teaching me how to pick locks, and since we can't open this one with magic, I though…"

With a click, the lock opened. Giving Seren a triumphant smile, Halios put away her lock-picking tools and opened the door. As soon as the door opened, the keys began to dive towards them in high speed.

Going slightly pale, Seren barked out an "Oh crap!", before pushing Halios through the door, following her and slamming it shut behind them. The sound of keys hitting the door just moments afterwards showed that she had done the right thing.

"That was too close…" Seren said, the adrenaline making her breath as if she had run a couple of miles.

"Yeah," Halios agreed. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem. We are friends, aren't we?"

Halios simply answered with a small, happy smile, before looking around with a small scowl on her face. "What is this room, anyway?"

The room looked like a giant cave, with a small stone bridge leading up to a platform, which was covered in darkness. Slowly, they moved closer to the platform, and when they were just a few steps from it, it was illuminated, showing a giant chess-board, complete with on-scale chess-pieces.

On the other side of the board, they could see another door. "It would seem like we have to play and win before we can continue." Seren said.

"Yes, but neither of us are very good at chess." Halios said, while thinking things through. "Hmm, do think we could go back and get the brooms from the previous room and just fly around this thing?"

"Perhaps," Seren answered. "But we would have to be really fast so that the keys don't attack us again."

"If we can just open the door a little bit, I can use a Telekinesis spell in order to get the brooms without putting us in more danger."

"Well, it's worth a try." Seren said with a shrug. Moving back to the door, Seren pushed it open just enough to let Halios summon the brooms to them. The brooms had been charmed to stop all types of summoning, but that only worked for wizarding magic. The divine type of magic Halios had access to, was able to overpower the charm on the brooms, and soon two brooms were in her hands, and Seren had quickly shut the door again. Giving one of the brooms to Seren, they soon soared through the air, moving around the chess set and landing in front of the next door.

Opening the door, a hideous smell met them. Looking into the room with tears in their eyes due to the smell, they saw the corpse of a troll. Apparently, whoever put the troll there, had forgotten to feed it, and as such, it was now dead and had been for at least a month.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Seren was going paler by the second, and soon she bolted away from the door and started heaving.

Deciding that she had to do something about the smell and the corpse, Halios began casting her most powerful fire spell. Whatever magical resistance the troll had when it was alive, it seemed to have disappeared when it died, and soon there was just a heap of ashes where the corpse once lay. While the smell of burning flesh was in no way pleasant, it was still infinitely better than the smell of the rotting corpse of a troll in a closed environment. Holding their breaths, they quickly ran across the room to the door on the other side. After a few moments they had opened it, stepped through, and closed it behind them. In the room they now stood, there was a pedestal, on which seven bottles of different kinds stood. Next to the bottles, a piece of parchment lay.

As they stepped closer to the pedestal, fire sprang up both behind them, and across the room where the next door was. Now trapped in the room, they searched the pedestal for clues about what to do. On the parchment, there was a riddle.

' _Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

 _Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

 _One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

 _Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

 _Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

 _Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

 _Choose, unless you wish to stay here evermore,_

 _To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

 _First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

 _You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

 _Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

 _But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

 _Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

 _Neither dwarf nor giant hold death in their insides;_

 _Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

 _Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.'_

"A riddle?" Halios looks at Seren. "Let's see if we can figure this one out. Let's see… The second from the left and the second from the right contains the same thing, and since the second from the right is the largest bottle, they have to contain the wine, since the largest and the smallest bottle are poison free. So, after we remove them, the bottles directly to the left of those two are poison, so we can remove them too. The bottle furthest to the right takes us back, so that means… This one lets us move forward!" Halios says, and points to the smallest bottle. "Let's see, if we split the content, it should be enough to get us both through… Right, are you ready?"

Seren nods and takes a sip from the bottle before handing it over to Halios, who does the same. After taking a deep breath to calm their nerves, they quickly steps through the fire and opens the door to the next room. They could feel the fire, but it felt like a really hot bath, rather than painful heat.

The next room had only one door, which was the one they came through, so it had to be the last room. It was empty, except for a large mirror which was standing in the middle of the room. Moving closer to the mirror, they both stared at what they saw in the mirror.

"Do you see what I see?" Seren asks quietly.

"That depends on what you see."

"I-I… I see, well, _us_. You, me, Neville, Hermione, my parents… but, we are _older_. Maybe in our late teens, or early twenties. My parents are standing behind me, smiling. Neville and Hermione stands next to one another, but a bit to the side, as if they are a couple. They are also smiling. You are standing to my left, and to my right is a man, but I can't see his face. All I can make out of it are the colours blue and red. We all seems so… Happy."

"That is similar to what I see. I see _all_ my parents. James, Lily, Mother, Father, they are all standing behind me, smiling. You, Hermione and Neville are also there, standing a bit to the side. And just as you said, we all look older. Next to me is Tonks, and another figure. I can't make out if it's a male or a female, but we are all looking happy and content."

"Do you think the mirror shows the future?" Seren asks.

"I don't know…" Halios answers, and begins to examine the mirror some more. On the top part of the frame she sees an inscription:

' _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.'_

"Hmm, Erised stra ehru oy tube cafru oyt on wohsi… OH! I show not your face but your hearts desire! So the mirror shows _not_ the future, but our deepest desires."

Looking back into the mirror, Halios sees something that confuses her. The representation of her in the mirror, blinks at her, before taking a red stone from her pocket, shows it to her and puts it back.

But when it does so, Halios feels something drop into her pocket. Reaching in, she takes out the same stone her representation had shown her just moments ago. Too tired to think more about it right then, Halios turns to Seren and says; "I think we have found what's been hidden here. Come, I'll open a portal to our dorm room, so that we don't have to deal with the stuff we passed coming here on the way back."

Seren nods and soon they are lying in their beds, thinking about what they had seen that night.

* * *

 **And that's the end of this chapter. This is the longest chapter I've ever written, and the length I will try to keep for all upcoming chapters.**

 **Next time: The group figure out what the stone is, the school ends for the year, there is a meeting at Gringotts and the summer begins.**

 **Until then.**

 **Baleygr**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Like looking for a stone in a quarry**

The next day, we find Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren down at the lake, talking and relaxing. When Halios took out the stone, and told Neville and Hermione that they had found it in the forbidden corridor on the third floor. When hearing that, Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"So, let me get this straight…" she said. "You found that stone at the end of the corridor we were told _not_ to go into, unless we wished to die, correct?"

"Yes..?"

"And what did you have to do in order to get the stone?"

"Oh, just clear some tasks, nothing hard."

Hermione throws her an irritated glare.

"Fine… First it was a Cerberus, which we put to sleep. Second was a plant of some sort, which we burned. After that came a room with a locked door, some brooms, and a lot of keys flying around. I picked the lock on the door for that one. Then, it was a giant chess-set. We went back, got the brooms, and flew around it. Next, was a room with a dead troll inside. It looked like it had died some months ago.

The room stank so much we rushed through that one. After that, there was a riddle. The doors in the room with the riddle was blocked by flames, but solving the riddle let us move forward. In the last room there was a mirror. The frame of the mirror was engraved with the words _'I show not your face but your heart's desire'._ But I think the mirror also showed some part of the future, for when we looked in it, not only did we see our heart's desires, but there were also two figures we couldn't make out who they were. And since we couldn't see who they were, they must be people we haven't met yet. And it was there I got the stone. My mirror image picked it up out of her pocket, and when she put it back, the stone appeared in my pocket. Since there was nothing left to do after that, we returned to our dorm in order to sleep."

Taking a deep breath in order to calm herself down, Hermione counts to ten before saying anything.

"Well, what is done is done, and there is nothing we can do about it now. But we still need to figure out what that stone is."

She stands up. "To the library!" she exclaims, and sets off. Laughing to themselves, the other three quickly follows her.

 **A few hours later**

Hermione was agitated. No, scratch that, she was livid. How hard should it be to find information about a stone? Well, apparently quite hard it seemed.

"Argh! I know there are information about the stone somewhere in here, but why can't we find it!?" Hermione ranted quietly.

"Well, at least we know what stone it isn't." Seren answered with a dry tone.

"Oh, and what stone have you concluded that it isn't?" came the snarky reply from Hermione.

Ignoring the tone, Seren continued. "Clearly, it is not the Llech Ronw, as it isn't big enough, nor does it have the tell-tale hole. Nor is it the Lia Fáil, since that stone is in Ireland. And the Gjöll is completely out, since there is no way you could chain the Fenrisúlfr to that little thing. And since we have all touched it, it can't be the Sessho-Seki from Japan, for if it had been, we would all be dead."

Calming down, Hermione sighed. "Ok, let's go through what we know about the stone again. One, it is about as big as a fist and amber-like in colour. Two, while it is most likely magical in origin, we have no idea what it does. And three, it is not a legendary stone, but still well-known enough for it to need some protective measures. So, based on that, which stone is it?"

It was Neville who spoke up, apparently having remembered something. "Uhm, since it was Professor Dumbledore that placed the stone there, perhaps it has some connection to him?"

Hermione just stared out into the air for a moment, before giving him a giant hug. "Of course! How could I have forgot it! Albus Dumbledore, famous for defeating Gellert Grindewald in 1945 and the discovery of the twelve different uses for dragon's blood, which he made while being the apprentice to Nicholas Flamel, the creator of the _Philosopher's Stone_!"

The other three blinked, and then looked at the stone that was lying innocently on the table.

"Ok… so, now we know what it is," Seren began. "The question now is, what shall we do with it?"

"Well, we can always send a letter to Flamel and ask him." Halios quipped. "I mean, it _is_ his stone."

Looking at each other, the other three shrugged before Hermione spoke up.

"It's not like there's anything else to do…"

"Yes, I doubt that Dumbledore would be happy if we took the stone to him." Was Seren's opinion.

"Uhm, contacting Flamel might be the best thing to do." Neville said.

"Ok, then. So, we send a letter to Flamel, telling him that we have found something that we believe belongs to him, describes the stone and asks if it is his. If he confirms it, we can try and set a meeting with him in order to return the stone. The problem is, when and where should that meeting take place?"

"Well… it has to be someplace that's agreeable to Flamel, and where there are few to no magicals can spy on us and discover that we have the stone, so… Gringotts or someplace in the mundane world?" Hermione injected.

"Somewhere in the mundane world, I think… It's the least likely place to find a magical being, and even though Gringotts is said to be the safest place in the world, unless it's concerns something locked in one of their vaults, the Goblin would most likely sell the information to anyone that could pay."

Neville and Seren nodded at this, knowing full well of the greedy and shifty nature of the Goblins. Hermione seemed a bit hesitant at first, but after they had told her of the Goblins lust for gold and willingness to do anything for it, she agreed that the mundane world was a better bet.

So, the four friends set of in order to write the letter to Flamel, none of them thinking of using the stone for their own gain. They didn't know that returning the stone to its rightful owner without asking for something in return would earn them the gratitude of a powerful man. Gratitude that would prove to be useful in a few years' time.

* * *

 _Scene change_

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office. The last week had been taxing in the extreme, to say the least. When professor Quirrell had disappeared, his first reaction had been to check of the Philosopher's Stone, but that thought had quickly disappeared when he heard from Hagrid what had happened in the Forest the night before.

That was why he had called in the Aurors' and the Unspeakable in order to find out what had happened that night. While the Aurors' had interviewed the student body and the faculty, the Unspeakable had investigated the scene of the light that had appeared that night in the Forbidden Forest. So far, the Aurors' had concluded that no foul play had been the cause of Quirrells' disappearance, and there was nothing more for them to do. The Unspeakable's, on the other hand, had found out that the light was magical in origin, and that something foul had been destroyed in that clearing. They had also found traces of unicorn blood on the ground, but dismissed it after Hagrid had told them of the injured unicorn that had been found and healed on that spot.

So imagine his surprise, when he earlier that morning had gone to check on the stone, only to find it gone. Fluffy, the Cerberus he had borrowed from Hagrid, had been asleep when he got there. This wasn't that unusual, so he had dismissed it. But the Devil's Snare that professor Sprout had placed there to guard the way forward had been burnt down with some powerful fire spell. A spell powerful enough to be beyond most of the students capabilities.

This raised alarms in his mind, and he hurried on. In the next room, there were no signs of magic on either the door _or_ the correct key, but the door was still unlocked, and some of the brooms were gone. Moving on, he found that the chess-set was untouched, which eased his fears until he saw the missing brooms on the other side of it. Quickly moving to the next room, he was almost floored by the stench in that room. Seeing the corpse of the troll that had been places there, he realized that they had forgotten to feed it, and it had starved to death quite a long time ago.

After putting a Bubble Head charm on himself, he moved on to the next room. Finding nothing out of place there either, he came to the conclusion that whoever had come for the stone was probably trapped in the next room. Readying himself for what he believed he would face, he slammed open the last door, only to find an empty room with the Mirror of Erised standing in the middle of it. He had quickly approached the mirror and had attempted to retrieve the stone from it, only to find the stone gone, and no indications on who had taken it, or how the person had left the room.

So, here he was, down one professor and having lost the Philosopher's Stone he had attempted to guard. What to do? What to do…

* * *

 _Scene change_

* * *

About a week later, a letter came with answers from Flamel. He confirmed that it was the Philosopher's Stone, and he thanked them for letting him know they had it. He continued on writing that he would be in London the day after school ended, and that they could meet him at the British Museum, 12 o'clock noon that day.

Sending a letter back, stating that they would meet him there, the four soon put all thoughts about the stone aside, as they began to study for the end term exams. And so, time went on and the four entered into a relaxing pattern. They went to their classes, did their homework, spent time with each other, just having fun and simply acted like kids their age should.

It was a week before the end of the school year, when a letter came from Gringotts. They had apparently had a breakthrough in researching the breaking of magical contracts, and were calling in all concerned parties for a meeting on the evening the day school ended.

Halios sent a message to her parents, as it was impossible for the Goblins to reach them in any way, shape or form. Meridia sent a mental message back, telling her that she and Sheogorath would be waiting for her on platform 9 ¾ before going to Gringotts.

The exams came and went, and they all thought that they did well in all subjects. On the last day of the term, there was organized chaos as hundreds of kids and teens ran around, trying to finish packing for the journey home before the train left. Halios, Neville, Seren and Hermione had all packed the night before, and were now just making sure they hadn't forgotten anything and that their trunks were placed so that they could easily be taken to the train. Well, Seren, Hermione and Neville did that, Halios just sent her stuff home via a portal.

After breakfast, they all went down to the station and got on the train. At 10 o'clock exactly, the Hogwarts Express took off, starting the journey back to Kings Cross. Time went by quickly, and they soon reached their destination. On the platform they met up with their families. As Sirius was the head of the Black family, and would join them for the meeting at Gringotts, they said hello to Hermione's parents, Emma and Dan Granger and greeted Neville's grandmother, the Dowager Longbottom before saying that they would see each other the next day for the meeting at the London Eye. They agreed to meet at the Leaky Cauldron at 11, before going to the meeting with Flamel. Hermione's parents agreed to chaperone, as they were the only ones who knew how to get to the British Museum, since Neville, Seren and Halios had never been in the mundane part of London before, and neither had their parents/guardians. So after saying goodbye, Neville and his grandmother left by apparition, and the Granger family went through the barrier in order to drive home.

Halios and her parents joined the Black-Weiss family when they returned to their home. There, Halios said goodbye to Seren, and she, Meridia, Sheogorath and Sirius all travelled to Gringotts, Sirius by apparating, and the other three by portal.

When they got there, they met up with the Tonks family before announcing their presence to one of the Goblin tellers. Soon, they were led to a room where they met with the Account Managers of the Black and Potter accounts, plus an older looking Goblin who introduced himself as Breakback, a lore-keeper of the Goblin race.

Once everyone had sat down, Boneclaw, the Potter Account Manager began speaking.

"Welcome. We called for this meeting as Breakback here has found references of an artefact that, if it still exist, could help terminate the marriage contract."

At this point, Breakback took over. "In some of the earliest records of our race, I found mentions of a dagger once held by a witch known as Medea of Colchis. Said dagger was rumoured to be enchanted with the ability to sever any types of contracts. While we have been able to confirm that Medea and the dagger did exist, but we have as of yet been unable to determine of the dagger has survived into the modern age. Though if it has, it has most likely not been discovered yet, as such a thing would have been well known amongst those who deal in contracts of all types."

While Meridia and Sheogorath was indifferent, Sirius and the Tonks family looked very intrigued by this. Sirius was the first one to speak.

"So if we can find this dagger, the contract could be cancelled?"

"Correct." Breakback said, nodding. "But that is _if_ the dagger can be found. The area where the dagger could be is the entirety of Greece, and most of the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. And that is only if it hasn't been taken from said area by raiders or looters who didn't know what they had. If it has been taken from that area, it could be anywhere in the world now. For all we know, the dagger could be at a museum here in London right now, or even laying forgotten somewhere in Hogwarts. We just don't know."

"So, while the dagger might exist, there is nothing we can do to get it?" Sirius says with a frown.

"Oh, we wouldn't say that." Boneclaw said, the three Goblins grinning bloodthirsty. "There exist a ritual that could tell us where the dagger is, but said ritual is very costly, and it takes time to prepare it."

"…How costly?" Sirius asks with trepidation.

"Well, about 10000 Galleons and two years of preparation, minimum. The more you pay, the better ingredients we can get and the more exact the ritual becomes."

There were no mistake, the Goblins were seriously enjoying themselves now. Being paid to find an artefact that could break any type of contract without penalties? It was like a dream come true for most Goblins. If they could get their hands on the dagger after it was used on the marriage contract, they would never again have to bend for a contract that was unfavourably to them. Plus, they would be able to rent the use of the dagger out for a large amount of gold to anyone desperate enough to pay the price.

"How exact would the ritual be with just the ingredients for 10000 galleons?" Asked Tonks.

"For 10000, we would be able to narrow it down to within a mile. Double it, and we can get it down to a few hundred feet. At 30000, we would be able to get its location within a few inches."

"Hmm… 30000 is out, since that amount would cripple the Black's economy to the point of it taking decades to recover. 10000 is not accurate enough, so 20000 it will be." Sirius decided.

"Do not worry, Sirius Black." Meridia injected. "Money hold no value amongst us, and gold is gold, no matter what form it takes. We have more than enough gold to be able to pay any price they would want, so fear not for the monetary future of your family, we have it all in hand."

With a wave of her hand, a large pile of gold coins and bars appeared next to her on the floor, startling the Goblins with its arrival. Turning to the Goblins, she continues.

"Take what is needed for the best result, and if it's not enough, more can be summoned."

The Goblins quickly used their magic to remove 30000 galleons worth of gold from the pile. Once they were done, only a few hundred coins and one or two bars remained in the pile, so Meridia waved her hand again and the remaining gold disappeared back to where it came from.

"There. Now, how long before the ritual can be used?"

"To make sure the ingredients are the best possible, a year, and then two more to prepare the ritual, so three years from now, at midsummers eve for the most powerful magic possible." Breakback answered.

"Good" Meridia nods. "So unless there is something more to discuss, I think we're done here?"

The Goblins agreed, and said that they would contact them if something came up, or they discovered anything concerning the dagger.

Leaving Gringotts, each group said goodbye to the others. Halios got a hug from Tonks, who said she would keep in touch during the summer. Once they were done, they all left for their own homes.

Stepping foot in her realm for the first time in 9 months, Halios felt herself invigorated, and unconsciously switched to her male form. It felt good to be back home.

* * *

 **So, that's another chapter done. It became shorter than I had planned, but I found that I couldn't make it longer without adding a lot of unnecessary stuff to it. The next chapter will most likely be just as short, or even shorter, as it will only contain the meeting with Flamel and a summer montage. After that, the second book will begin.**

 **Next chapter to be published will be for Hollow Magic, hopefully before the middle of August.**

 **So until then. Enjoy.**

 **Baleygr**


	15. Chapter 14 (edited)

**I'm sorry it has taken so long for this chapter to be written, but once the summer ended things became quite hectic at work, and then I got sick, so… yeah, a lot of things got in the way. Hopefully, there won't be too much interference after this, but you never know. Anyway, on with the story.**

 **Edited 26/10-2017**

* * *

 **Day at the Museum**

When Halios awoke the next morning, he felt more refreshed than he had for months. While Hogwarts sat on a cluster of intersecting ley-lines, and thus is highly saturated by magic, his realm – like all Daedric Realms of Oblivion – was a realm of pure magic. Since he had yet too truly bond with the realm, which would happen in a few years' time, his powers depended on the amount of magic in the area.

For example; at Hogwarts, his powers were only a fraction of what he had whilst in his own realm, yet still far beyond anything mortals could hope to achieve. This was due to the magic he could absorb through the lay-lines. If he were to spend a large amount of time in a non-magical area, he would slowly weaken over the course of a month, until he was down on the level of a mortal magical child of his age.

That being said, as he was rested and in his home, he was at his strongest. Feeling better than he had for a while, Halios began his morning routine of training, and circulated his magic and essence through the environment, slowly increasing the area of effect. At first, it was only his rooms, but as time went on, he covered the entire floor, then the 'house' (which was more like a palace) and after almost two hours, 40% of his realm had been touched. That was when he was forced to stop, as he reached his limits. Slowly letting his magic retreat back into himself, Halios gave a sigh and went to the bathroom for a shower. Thirty minutes later, he left the room and went down to the kitchen in order to break his fast.

After he had eaten, he went to the library in order to study. Time passed slowly as he went over his books and began his summer homework. Yet, soon it was time to leave for the Leaky Cauldron, where Hermione and her parents would be waiting in order to take them to the British Museum. Changing his clothes to things more common in the mundane parts of Earth, he opened up a portal and stepped through to the small alley behind the Leaky Cauldron.

Entering the pub, Halios looked around, trying to spot his friends. He soon saw them at a table in a corner, so he made his way over to them.

At the table, Hermione and her parents, Seren and Sirius, and Neville with his grandmother, sat and talked as they waited for Halios. They had all arrived a bit early, and had thus been there for about 20 minutes already.

"Right, so it's two minutes past eleven now, which means Halios should be here any moment now." Hermione said, as she looked at her watch.

"So, how do you all think the meeting will go?" Neville asked while looking around, completely ignoring the golden-haired boy that were walking towards them.

"Well, that depends," Sirius Black answered. "If you give him back his Stone, and only ask for some minor things, then I think it will go rather well. But if you ask for something ridiculous, or dangerous, like how to make a Philosopher's Stone, then he will most likely deny your request and take the stone before giving you a warning about greed, or something."

"Which is why we should only ask for tips or help with something at a later date."

The group (minus Seren and Sirius) jumped in surprise when the male voice spoke. Looking to his left, Neville saw the boy that had been walking across the room moments ago. The Grangers and the Longbottoms was staring at him, and Hermione was about to ask who he was when Seren spoke.

"Oh, hi Halios. It's been a while since I saw you in male form."

Chuckling, Halios sat down beside her before he answered. "Yes, it's been almost ten months, now. As my female form is more in tune with magic than my male form, I thought it best to use it while at Hogwarts. Mind you, while I'm equally comfortable in both forms, this is my default form, as I was born a male."

The Grangers and Neville looked shocked, while the Dowager Longbottom had a thoughtful look on her face.

"So, you are a Metamorphmagus then?" She asked Halios.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I cannot change my looks at will, only switch between male and female form. This is due to how my kind exist."

"Your kind?" The Dowager Longbottom said with a raised eyebrow. "So you are not human, then?"

"Define 'human'," Halios answered. "But no, my kind are known as Daedra, though there's another branch called Aedra. Both the word Aedra and Daedra are elvish in origin, and can roughly be translated to 'our ancestors' for Aedra and 'not our ancestors' for Daedra. They became known as such, as the Aedra used parts of their powers to create the realm of Mundus, on which the races of men and mer rose to prominence."

Here, he looked at Hermione as she was almost jumping in her seat, wanting to ask a million questions. "Don't worry, Hermione, I'll explain what 'mer' means in a second."

"Anyway," he continued, turning back towards the others. "Mer is the collective term for the elven races. There is the Altmer, or the High Elves. The Dunmer, the Dark Elves. Bosmer, the Wood Elves. Orsimer, the Orcs. Falmer, the Snow Elves. Maormer, the Sea Elves and the now extinct Dwemer, or Dwarfs as they are now known."

Taking a short moment to accept a Butterbeer from Sirius and taking a sip, Halios then continued.

"As such, the Aedra are seen as gods on Mundus, and even if there's only eight of them, they are very powerful. They are; Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time and the chief god amongst them. Arkay, the God of the Circle of Life, Death and Mortals burials and funeral rites. Dibella, the Goddess of Beauty. Julianos, the God of Wisdom and Logic."

Here Halios takes a break again and looks at Hermione, who is now practically vibrating in her seat.

"Then there is Kynareth, Goddess of Air, wind, sky and the Elements. Mara, the Goddess of Love and Compassion. She is basically the Mother Goddess, and the one in which temple, almost all marriages takes place. Well, at least amongst humans. The final two are Stendarr, the God of Mercy, Justice, Charity, Luck and rightful rule by might and merciful forbearance, and Zenithar, the God of Work and Commerce."

Taking another sip of the Butterbeer, Halios checks the time.

"Perhaps we shall begin to move towards the Museum, so that we get there in time, while I continue the explanation on the way?"

The Grangers all looks at their watches, and agrees that, while they could sit a bit more before they had to go, it was better to err on the side of cation and go when you were sure you would be on time. Standing up, the group moved towards the door, and as the exited the pub, Halios continued his explanation.

"The Daedra, on the other hand, choose to create their own realms, over which they rule. They became known as Daedric Princes, and created lesser Daedra to inhabit their realms. There are at the moment seventeen Daedric Princes, as I have yet to take full control over my Realm. As with the Aedra, each Daedric Prince has their own realm of realms of influence, and they are thus;

Azura, the Queen of Dusk and Dawn, the Lady of Twilight and Prophecies.

Boethia, the Prince of Plots, Conspiracy and Deceit.

Clavicus Vile, Child-God of the Morningstar and Lord of Pacts and Wishes.

Hermaeus Mora, the Golden Eye and Lord of Fate, Knowledge, Learning and Memory.

Hircine, the Father of Man-Beasts and Lord of the Hunt.

Jyggalag, the Lord of Order.

Malacath, Lord of the Spurned, the Sworn Oath and the Bloody Curse.

Mehrunes Dagon, Lord of Destruction, Revolution and Change.

Mephala, the Webspinner, Lady of Sex, Secrets and Murder.

Meridia, the Goddess of Light and Lady of Infinte Energies. Her domain is everything that is alive, and she is my Mother.

Molag Bal, the Father of Vampires, King of Rape, Domination and Enslavement.

Namira, the Ancient Darkness, and Lady of all things Repulsive, such as cannibalism.

Nocturnal, the Lady of the Night, Darkness and Thieves.

Peryite, the Taskmaster, Lord of Natural Order and Pestilence.

Sanguine, Lord of Hedonism, Debauchery and Indulgence

Sheogorath, Lord of the Never-There, The Mad God, and my Father.

Vaermina, the Gifter, Lady of Dreams, Nightmares and Omens.

And then there's me," Halios ended. "While I've yet to reach the rank of Prince, so far my domains appears to be Music and Healing."

"This is all very interesting," the Dowager Longbottom injected, "but what does this has to do with you changing gender?"

"It's simple, really." Halios said. "Aedra and Daedra are being of pure magic. Thus, the form we take are influenced by our domains and personalities. For example, Mehrunes Dagon. Due to his personality and domains, he has a massive build, four arms, red skin and horns. He basically looks like what most would imagine a demon. Hermaeus Mora, on the other hand, is an amorphous blob of darkness, with a multitude of eyes and tentacles, simply because that form is the easiest way for him to keep track on all his books with."

Augusta Longbottom nodded, as she finally understood Halios point.

"I see… So you change, not due to being a Metamorphmagus, but rather because you have no fixed form?"

"That is correct, Madam Longbottom."

The conversation ended there, as they had reached the Museum and all the magicals wanted to see what the Museum was all about. Entering the Museum after paying the entrance fee, the group made its way through the exhibitions. The magicals were awed by the dinosaur exhibition, and both Blacks and Longbottoms could feel the cold sweat running down their necks as they saw the documented destruction caused by the atom bombs in the WW2 exhibition. Soon, they came to the exhibition on Ancient Greece, where they were to meet the Alchemist.

Looking around the exhibit, Halios could see several interesting items. There was a large, ornate bronze shield, a big club made of olive wood, though it was so old, the wood had almost turned to stone. A bit further away, there was a display containing a helmet and a dagger that looked almost like a lightning bolt.

On the far side of the room, an older man stood and waited for them. As the group neared him, his penetrating grey eyes made everyone but Halios feel as if they were before a parent who was trying to discern if they had been good or bad. Even the Dowager Longbottom felt like that, despite being the oldest in the group by almost half a century. As the only one unfazed by the Alchemists gaze, Halios was the one to greet him.

"Greetings. Mr Flamel, I presume?"

"That I am, boy. Now, who are you?"

"Halios Meridian Sheoth," Halios said with a slight bow. "With me are Seren Black-Weiss and her father, Lord Sirius Black. Neville Longbottom and his grandmother, the Dowager Augusta Longbottom. And Hermione Granger with her parents Emma and Dan Granger."

As Halios introduced them, each of those present gave the Alchemist a small bow or a curtsey. The Alchemist bowed back before addressing Halios again.

"Now, the letter you sent said you had found something that you believed to be mine, and the description you wrote down does indeed match the Stone, but I would only be able to confirm or deny if I were to see the object in question. So, if I may..?"

Halios nods before taking out a small lockbox. Opening the box reveals the thing they believe to be the Philosopher's Stone, and he hands it over to Flamel. Flamel looks the Stone over, and sends a small burst of prana into it. Nodding to himself, he puts the stone down again.

"Yes, it is my Stone. How did you find it, and what do you want for returning it to me?"

Halios begins to describe how he and Seren had found the stone, and at the end of the story, Flamel just shakes his head.

"Dammit, Albus, this is _not_ what I had in mind when I allowed you to use the Stone…" He mutters to himself, before speaking louder. "I have to thank you again for returning the Stone to me, but I still have to ask; what do you want as a reward?"

Looking at each other, the four youngster just shook their shoulders, before Seren spoke up.

"At the moment? Nothing. But perhaps in the future we would need your help with something, so perhaps a favour each to be agreed upon on a later date?"

Nodding to himself, Flamel could agree to her reasoning. Since he knew they had years of wizard education yet to go through, a favour for a later date was far more valuable than anything else they could have asked for at this time.

"Agreed. Each one of you will have _one_ favour you can ask of me at a later date, but I reserve the right to deny it, if I find it beyond my powers. If I were to deny the request, the favour will remain until later."

"Agreed." Halios says, after a short conversation with his friends and their families. After shaking the Alchemists hand to seal the agreement, the group left the exhibition in order to return to the Leaky Cauldron to have lunch, before each family went their own way.

* * *

 **A short while ago, with Sheogorath**

Having felt Halios leave the realm, Sheogorath was wondering what to do. Perhaps he should go and visit some of the worlds' leaders? There were a lot of them that belonged in his domain after all, especially in that 'Middle Eastern' region of the world…

Nah, that would be boring. But what about visiting that museum Halios had spoken about? After all, there weren't any museums in Tamriel – well, except that small place in Dawnstar, but that was more of a glorified shrine to Dagon that celebrated the death of the Septim dynasty and his friend Martin, so he hadn't really felt like visiting it before the Dragonborn killed the proprietor all those years ago…

Giving a resolute nod, Sheogorath rose from his throne, having decided to go to the museum. Taking a single step forward, Sheogorath suddenly stood in the centre of a room filled with relics from the past. Moving through the room into the next, Sheogorath came face to face with and old man with red eyes.

As the two beings stood in front of one another, the yellow cat-like eyes of Sheogorath met the red eyes of Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, and the smiles on their faces caused Gaia, the Will of the Earth, and Alaya, the Spirit of Humanities collective thoughts, to shudder in fright. For now, the Embodiment of Madness, and the Multiverse's Greatest Troll, had met.

* * *

 **So, that's the end of this chapter and the end of the first year. The next chapter will be more of the meeting between Sheogorath and Zelretch, plus the end of summer and shopping for the second year.**

 **Next to be written is a chapter for Hollow Magic, followed by the third chapter of 'A Ninja Summoned'.**

 **Until then. Enjoy.**

 **-Baleygr**


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